Rejuvenation
by XAkatcutiesX
Summary: After finding one of Orochimaru's leftover scrolls, Deidara decides to try it out on Sasori. Maybe it'll help the puppet loosen up a bit. He didn't know it'd turn Sasori into a child. And of course the Akatsuki are as helpful as ever. Complete.
1. The Rejuvenation Scroll

.A loud boom sounded from somewhere in the base and Sasori's puppets rattled on their shelves. Putting his tool down, he looked up in curiosity, turning around in his chair to glance at the door. A moment later it swung open and Deidara burst inside the room, quickly slamming the door behind him and leaning against it, panting. "What's up, my man?" he asked when he noticed Sasori staring.

The puppet chewed his tongue and, deciding he didn't want to know, turned back around in his seat, picking up the screw driver and returning to his task. He heard the door open and then close again, but still sensed Deidara's chakra in the room. The bomber walked across the room and stood behind Sasori for a while, watching him work.

"I blew up my room again. Kakuzu's going to kill me." The blond glanced around for a chair before finally plopping down on the puppet's rarely-used bed. "This thing's dusty, hm. When's the last time you laid in it?"

"You know I don't need to sleep that often." Sasori finished tightening a screw and set the puppet down on his desk. He moved his eyes to glance at the intruder. "Don't you have someone else to go bother?"

"I'm just waiting until the dust clears out of my room." Deidara leaned back onto his elbows, eyes wandering around the room. He glanced over all the puppets, most of which were unfinished or missing limbs. "What are you working on?"

"A puppet," Sasori said curtly, grabbing the finished work and moving to stand. Deidara sat up, rolling his eyes.

"Well, obviously, hm." He watched the redhead cross the room and pose the puppet on a shelf. Then he moved back toward Deidara and reached above him, pulling another one down and walking back to his desk. It still kind of disturbed Deidara that all the puppets in Sasori's collection were actually corpses. "You're fixing them?"

Sasori ignored him, analyzing the cracks in the face of the work before him and wondering how he should go about fixing them. He'd probably have to construct a whole new face. Next he looked at the splintered, broken arm. Making a mental checklist, he continued in this pattern of thinking, already planning improvements for the new parts he'd have to make. He'd almost forgotten Deidara was even in the room until the blond yawned.

"Is this all you do on your days off? Hm."

"When else do I have time to fix them?" Sasori answered with another question, hoping to shut the blond up. He stood, crossing the room again and digging around in the old dresser he'd been using as storage for his puppet parts. He pulled out an arm and a head, dusted off some wood shavings and returned to his chair.

"Don't you ever do anything fun?" Deidara brushed some dust off his sleeve, sneezing a moment later. "You're always cooped up in this room when we're not on missions, hm. You don't even join us at dinner."

"I don't need to eat, brat." Sasori opened the drawer of his desk, reaching his hand in and feeling around for a sanding pad. "And your idea of fun isn't the same as mine." He grabbed a pencil and a filer out as well, and went to work drawing designs on the new head of the puppet. "Why do you care, anyway?"

Deidara shrugged, smirking and leaning back in the bed again. "Who says I do? I'm just looking out for your well-being, is all. We're partners, hm. Besides," he continued, sitting up again, "I don't think it's good for you to be cooped up in here all the time. All you do is work on those puppets of yours. You don't ever interact with any of the other members unless you absolutely have to, hm."

Sasori growled, quickly getting annoyed at his partner's constant talking. "I don't see the need to butt in to any of their business, unless some people I know." He pushed his chair away from the desk, standing up. "And for your information, working on puppets is my way of relaxing and getting away from people like you." He walked to the door and opened it, glaring back at Deidara. "I don't need to interact with others; I have my puppets and my subordinates. Anything I need is just a flick of the wrist or a command away." He pointed into the hallway. "Now leave me alone, I'm sure the dust has cleared from your room."

Deidara sighed, standing and patting the dust from Sasori's bed off of his cloak. "Whatever, my man. Have fun with your dolls, hm."

Deidara left down the hall back to his room, fanning the remaining smoke out the window and wondering how he was going to clean up the mess before Kakuzu and Hidan returned from their mission. Kakuzu had nearly decapitated Deidara the last time he'd caused so much destruction in the bass. Something about how much it was going to cost to repair the damages or something.

Kisame walked by the blond's open door, stopping to peek in. He let out a low whistle. "Early detonation again?"

"Yeah, hm. I don't know how the hell it happened this time." Deidara motioned to the blasted wall. "I need to fix that before the money-grubber gets back."

"There's some wood and plaster down in the basement, I think," Kisame supplied, smirking. There never was a dull moment in the base. Deidara nodded his thanks, gathering up the burnt wood off the floor and walking out the door past Kisame to throw it away.

After the mess was cleared, he walked down the stairs to the basement, pushing the heavy door open and clicking on a light. It didn't help much, but it illuminated the stack of wood Kisame had talked about. "Now to find that plaster. And maybe some nails. I can ask Sasori for his hammer…" He fumbled his way through the dim basement, yelping as he hit his shin on an old wooden chest. "Damn thing!" He kicked it and it flipped over; the lid snapped off and a bunch of scrolls rolled out.

Rubbing his leg, he glanced curiously at the scrolls, picking up one that had rolled open. Cautiously he held it up to the light, careful not to accidentally activate or set it off.

"Rejuvenation," he read aloud. "Huh." He took a seat on an old canister and started reading it. It seemed to be some sort of jutsu that had the ability to make someone younger. Looking back at the chest it had come from, he wasn't surprised (though a little disturbed) that it belonged to Orochimaru. Why would the snake-nin leave any of this junk behind? The only reason Deidara could come up with was that they were left behind in the rush of him getting kicked out of the Akatsuki. Maybe Sasori would know something about the scrolls…

Wait. Sasori… Deidara read through the scroll again, an idea forming in his mind. Sasori was what, thirty-five years old? He probably thought all that puppet stuff was fun because he was older. Maybe if the redhead was rejuvenated…

"I mean, it's not like he really had a fun childhood anyway," Deidara pondered aloud. The puppet master had never really talked about having any adventures, either, other than defeating villages. Which sounded pretty fun to Deidara, but he was sure that Sasori hadn't really found them joyful in the way he should have.

For Sasori, it was probably more about testing his puppets' abilities and his own abilities as a puppet master. All work, no play. If Deidara could use this jutsu on him, maybe his partner would actually be up for a little fun. It was worth a try.

Rolling up the scroll, Deidara hid it in his sleeve and gathered up the wood he'd need for the repairs in his room, finally settling on the idea of using some of his clay instead of plaster for the walls. He quickly made it back to his room, setting the planks down and sitting on the floor, pulling the scroll out and reading it again to make sure there weren't going to be any adverse side effects. Seeing none, he studied the seals he'd need to perform to make it work.

After an hour and a half, he felt ready. He stood up, stomping his legs a bit to wake them up. He walked back down the hall to Sasori's room, knocking lightly instead of bursting in again. "Come in," he heard the puppet-nin say. Sasori turned toward the door as it opened, frowning at Deidara. "What is it now?"

"Just wondering if I can borrow a hammer. And some nails? Hm." Deidara stepped inside the room, shutting the door behind him.

"Sure." Sasori got up and walked toward his bedside table to retrieve the requested objects. Deidara smirked at how odd the redhead's organizational patterns were. While the puppet's back was turned, Deidara quickly formed the hand seals, running toward his partner as he did and finishing the jutsu with a slap to the back of Sasori's head. "What the hell, Deidara?!"

Sasori whipped around, chakra threads already forming from his fingertips and latching onto a puppet. In a matter of seconds, the third Kazekage was holding a kunai to Deidara's throat. 'Damn,' Deidara thought. 'It didn't work.' As he finished the thought, however, he was surprised when the kunai and the puppet wielding it slumped to the floor with a clank and a crash.

Sasori looked equally confused as he stared at his favorite puppet, and then inspected his hands. The chakra threads had disappeared suddenly. He glared up at Deidara. "What the hell did you-"

Deidara inhaled sharply as suddenly Sasori's (light) weight fell against his chest. He scrambled to catch the puppet, grabbing him around the chest and cautiously setting him down against the desk. "Maybe it worked after all, hm." Suddenly there was a flash of smoke where Sasori had been slumped over. Deidara involuntarily screamed a little, clamping his hand over his mouth afterward. He glanced toward the door and listened to make sure no one was coming before turning his head back to where Sasori was. He gasped.

Instead of the puppet body of Sasori, a small child lay against the desk, his chest rising and falling slowly. Deidara kneeled down before him, studying its features. The boy bear an uncanny resemblance to his partner, it had to be him. So it had worked.

"I didn't think it meant this by rejuvenation," Deidara mused, but he grinned all the same. This was even better. Kids were loads of fun; this would be Sasori's chance to finally enjoy his childhood. Maybe then he wouldn't be such a jerk when the jutsu reversed. Speaking of which, he hadn't really read into how to reverse the jutsu. Before he could ponder the matter any further, there was a knock at the door.

Panicking, Deidara quickly hefted Sasori's body up and set him in the chair, sitting him up as best as he could. The child was shorter than Sasori, and smaller too, so his Akatsuki cloak didn't really fit him and it didn't look right with him in the chair. This wouldn't work.

There was another knock at the door and Deidara glanced around. "Just a minute!" he called, finally spotting the dusty bed and getting an idea.

"Deidara?" It was Kisame. "Itachi said he heard a girly scream from in there…" The door knob twisted and cracked open. Deidara met the shark nin in the doorway a split second later.

"Scream?" Deidara stepped out of the room, pushing Kisame with him and shutting the door behind him. "Itachi must be hearing things, hm."

"Why are you acting suspicious?" Kisame raised an eyebrow. "What's going on in there? Not that it's any of my business, of course."

"You're right, it's not." Deidara crossed his arms. "Anyway, Sasori's just in one of his moods. I'd leave him alone if I were you."

"I wasn't planning on bothering him." Kisame frowned. "Itachi just wanted me to check the scream out…Hey, he doesn't have a girl in there, does he?" The shark-man smirked, nudging Deidara's arm.

"No way, hm!" Deidara chuckled, deciding to play along to avoid suspicion. "I don't think he even has that ability anymore."

Kisame laughed out loud. "Well, that's probably-" He stopped abruptly, glancing behind Deidara as if in shock.

"What? What is it?" Deidara asked, whipping around. He almost jumped out of his skin when he spotted a small child peeking out of the bedroom door.

"What's going on?" the child asked, wiping his eyes with his oversized sleeve and opening the door wider. Kisame backed up slightly, a disgusted look on his face.

"Why does Sasori have a kid in there with him? That's a little sick, even for him."

Deidara sighed, grabbing Kisame's arm and pulling him into Sasori's room, shoving the child in with them. "Okay, you have to keep this a secret, alright? This kid _is_ Sasori." Sasori glanced up at the blue shinobi and his lip quivered.

"I don't like you…" He hid behind Deidara's leg. "He's scary."

"How in the hell is that Sasori? What happened to him?" Kisame glanced around the room as if the real Sasori would come out of a hiding place and explain it was a joke.

"I used a rejuvenation jutsu on him," Deidara admitted. "Just so he'd loosen up a bit. I didn't think he'd be turned into a child, hm. But it's actually pretty cool. Look, he's not even a puppet anymore. He's human." He motioned to the child's exposed shoulder. Sasori moved further behind Deidara, whimpering.

Kisame tore his eyes away from the child and gave an uncertain look at Deidara. "…Are you sure that this is a good idea?"

"Relax, it's only temporary. I just wanted him to have a little fun. I admit, this wasn't exactly what I had planned, hm." He scratched his chin in thought. "But at least this way, he'll sorta get to have a childhood, you know?"

Kisame didn't look too convinced, but he shrugged. This was Deidara's mess, after all. "I guess…how do you expect to take care of a child, though? Especially around a bunch of S-rank criminals?"

Deidara chuckled, looking behind himself at Sasori. "How hard can it be? All they do is play, eat, and sleep. This'll be a piece of cake, hm."

"Well, I'll leave you to it, then." Kisame turned to leave but Deidara grabbed his arm.

"Hey, don't tell anyone yet, okay? I wanna keep it a secret until I get him settled a bit." Kisame nodded his agreement, glancing down at Sasori again, who squealed in fright and ducked further behind Deidara. With a frown and a shrug, the taller shinobi left the room, shutting the door behind him.

"Alright," Deidara began, turning around to face Sasori. "Do you know who you are?" He wanted to get a feel of all that Sasori remembered; he obviously hadn't remembered Kisame, who knows how else his memory was affected.

"I'm Sasori…have you seen my parents?" He played with the hem of his sleeve nervously, eyes darting around the room. "Or my grandmother?"

Deidara had to come up with a plan quickly. "Oh, don't you remember?" He stalled by kneeling in front of Sasori, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Your parents are away on a mission, and your grandmother had to leave the village for a while, so she asked if you could stay with me for a bit."

Sasori seemed unsure of this answer, and glanced behind Deidara at the door. Seeing this, the blond forced a good-natured chuckle.

"Of course, you were really tired at the time. I'm not surprised you don't remember." He tried to gauge Sasori's age. He wasn't a toddler, nor did he seem to be older than eight. "You at least remember your Uncle Deidara, right?" The redhead's eyes widened and he stammered nervously.

"Oh, of c-course I do, Uncle!" he lied. Deidara smirked. He could trick Sasori into trusting him.

"Well, that's good." Deidara stood up and smiled. "Alright, so I know it's been a while since we last saw each other. Tell me a bit about yourself." Sasori bit his lip and shook his head, becoming shy. "No? Alright, I'll tell you a little about me first." The blonde gave his age, made up a story about how he and Sasori were related, and talked about his interests. The former puppet seemed to relax a bit afterward; Deidara couldn't really blame him for being afraid in the first place. It'd be scary waking up somewhere strange, even as an adult. "So, how old are you again, Sasori?"

"I'm six…and a half." Deidara whistled. Wow, that a lot younger than he'd anticipated. "Deidara?"

"Yeah? Hm."

"I'm hungry…" The redhead stared up at him. Deidara grinned. Of course Sasori could eat now.

"Alright, you stay in this room and I'll go out and grab us something to eat from the kitchen, okay?" He maneuvered around the child and walked to the door, touching his hand to the door knob. He turned his head to look back at Sasori. "Remember, don't leave this room. And don't touch anything, hm."

He left, shutting the door firmly behind him and hurrying to the kitchen. Konan was sitting at the table enjoying a cup of tea. She glanced up from the stack of papers she was going over to greet Deidara. He muttered a greeting back, trying not to appear suspicious, and went to the fridge, opening it up and seeing if there was anything suitable for a child to eat.

Unfortunately, it didn't look like there was anything suitable for anyone to eat, period. Slamming the door, he sighed. "Isn't there anything to eat in this house?"

"There's soup still on the stove," Konan answered, sipping her tea. "I made it about an hour ago." Deidara grinned, rushing to the stove and lifting the lid on the pot. The smell that greeted him was delicious, so he grabbed down two bowls from the cupboard, ladling the food into them before grabbing some spoons. Konan raised her eyebrows at the blonde, obviously wondering why he had two servings, but she didn't question him. Deidara made a mental note to be more careful around her. He walked back down the hall to Sasori's room, using one of the bowls to knock on the door since his hands were full.

"Open the door," he instructed. A few moments later it creaked open and Sasori looked up at him before pulling it the rest of the way open, allowing Deidara inside. "I brought some soup, hm." He set one of the bowls down on the desk his partner was working at less than half an hour ago. Sasori approached the soup as if uncertain. After a while of spinning the spoon around in it, he cast a sideways glance at Deidara.

"Is this all we have?"

Deidara frowned as he brought his spoon to his lips, sipping some of the broth. "You don't like soup?" Sasori shook his head.

"Not this kind."

"You didn't even try it."

"It smells funny." The redhead put the spoon down, frowning. "I want my grandmother."

"She'll be back in no time, hm," Deidara said, stalling. He sighed, setting his soup down next to Sasori's on the desk. "Look, you have to eat and this is all we have. At least try it."

"I'm not hungry anymore." Sasori moved to sit on the bed, looking down at his oversized clothes. Deidara stared at him for a while, wondering what to do. He grinned as an idea came to him.

"That's too bad, then." He collected both the bowls and walked toward the door. "I was going to take you outside to fly around and blow stuff up, but since you don't want to listen…hm."

Sasori glanced up. "Fly around?"

"Yeah, on one of my clay birds. But if you don't want to eat-"

"Wait…" The redhead bit his lip as if contemplating. Finally, his light brown eyes met Deidara's blue one. "There isn't any broccoli in it, is there?"

Deidara grinned. Like he said, a piece of cake.


	2. The Secret's Out

After Sasori finished eating, Deidara took the dishes back to the kitchen, once again instructing his partner to stay in the room. When he returned, Sasori was admiring the various puppets on the shelves. "These are beautiful. Can I play with them?"

"Oh, uh," Deidara paused. If he allowed child Sasori to play with these puppets, he might break them. The blonde would prefer not to be poisoned when the red head was back to his old, boring, easily-irritated self. "Well, no. They're too valuable, hm." When he noticed the downcast look on the child's face, he changed the subject. "Hey, how about we go outside and blow shit up now?" Sasori immediatly snapped his head up, grinning ear to ear.

"Yeah!" he shouted. Deidara smiled.

"Alright, then. First, we gotta find you some decent fitting clothes, though." He motioned to the now-oversized Akatsuki cloak dangling off Sasori's shoulders. The boy had walked right out of his shoes and pants already. "Take that off and I'll look for a shirt or something, hm." The blond went to Sasori's dresser, looking through all the drawers and hoping against hope that he'd find something child-sized. Fortunately, there was a small, dark green cloak hidden in the back of the bottom-most drawer. Deidara held it up, inspecting it. It would still be rather large on Sasori, but at least he wouldn't be tripping over it like he was with the akatsuki cloak.

"Deidara?" Sasori folded said cloak as best he could before walking and placing it on the dusty bed. The blond held out the green one for the child to take. He found it odd to see Sasori like this. His heart wasn't sticking out of his chest, there were no compartments anywhere, and there was just simply skin where his cable used to be. He was human all right.

"Yeah, hm?"

"Why was I wearing those clothes?" The naked child slipped the new cloak over his head, struggling to find the arm holes. Deidara helped him while he thought of an answer. Unable to think of a suitable one, he just shrugged.

"Beats me." Finally the child was fully dressed, and if he really cared about the answer, it didn't show. "Ready to go out now?"

"Yeah!" Sasori grinned up at him once again. Deidara smiled back before walking to the door and cracking it open. Sticking his head out, he looked both ways down the hall before deciding that it was clear.

"Alright, follow me and stay close. We can't let the others see you, hm."

"Like that blue guy?" Sasori whispered, huddling close to Deidara as he remembered how terrifying that man had looked. "You mean there are more of them?"

"Shh, let's go." Deidara led him down the hall, the child basically hugging his leg the whole way. After taking a quick surveillance of the livingroom, the blond sighed in relief and successfully snuck his partner out the front door and to the outside world. "Well, that was easy, hm." He turned his head to smiled down at Sasori. The child was looking around at the forest surrounding the base. He bent down to rake his fingers through the grass at their feet.

"We sure are far away from the Sand village, huh?" he asked, standing straight again.

"Uh, yeah." Deidara started walking toward the forest, motioning for Sasori to follow him. He didn't want to do anything too close to the base. Sure, the other members were used to him detonating his clay almost around the clock, but the bomber figured he should try not to draw any more attention to himself than needed. It was bad enough that Kisame had already found out about his little experiement with Sasori. He wanted to make sure no one else found out until he had a good explanation as to why he decided to use a (basically) unknown jutsu on his Akatsuki partner. "This is far enough, hm."

Sasori looked around at the clearing they'd stopped at before turning to look up at Deidara, a wide smile on his face.

"Watch this, hm." Deidara reached both hands into his clay pouches, the mouths each taking a good-sized amount of clay into them. He held his hands out in front of him so Sasori could watch them chew. The redhead's mouth dropped open in awe. "That's not all," Deidara said proudly, the twin mouths producing the finished clay animals; a bird and a scorpion sat in his hands.

"Whoa!" Sasori stared at the two pieces, amazement evidence in his eyes. He looked up at the blond. "Can I keep them?"

Deidara frowned. "Keep them? Well, no, now's the fun part: We get to blow them up! Hm." Sasori seemed unsure, pursing his lips. Deidara sighed. Typical Sasori. "Here, hold these and I'll show you something else." After handing the clay pieces to the child, Deidara took a few steps back and summoned his large bird, once again getting an awestruck look from Sasori. Smirking, Dediara picked up the child, setting him down on the back of the bird before climbing on himself.

"This thing can fly?" Sasori asked, holding the smaller bird and scorpion to his chest.

"You bet it can, hm." And to prove it, Deidara took the bird high into the sky, getting that familiar pump of adrenaline he seemed to always crave. He leaned over Sasori's shoulder to see how he was doing; the kid glanced at him breifly before directing his eyes toward the ground, smiling widely. Satisfied that the redhead was enjoying himself, Deidara took them even higher, enjoying the wind blowing through his hair. Once they'd been flying for a while, he stood, instructing Sasori to do the same.

"We're so high up," Sasori commented, still staring toward the ground.

"Yeah, and don't forget it," Deidara warned, pulling Sasori away from the edge of the bird's back. "Now for the fun part. Throw those up in the air. Hm." The redhead held up the clay animals in his hands, hesitating only a moment before tossing them as far as he could. Deidara grinned and, using one arm to grab hold of Sasori, flew them a bit away from where the detonation would take place. "Still have them in sight?"

"Yeah."

"Alright!" The blonde use his free hand to form a seal; immediately afterward, two large explosions appeared in the sky before them, right where the clay pieces used to be. "Woo!" He turned to look at Sasori's reaction, pleased to find that his partner seemed to be enjoying it as much as he was.

"That was so cool!" Sasori shouted, tugging on Deidara's arm. "Can you make more?"

"Hell yeah, I can! Hm!" He shoved his hands into the pouches, producing more, and more, everytime Sasori asked until he ran out of clay. Taking the bird down, Deidara realized how much time had passed – the sun was already setting, and he still hadn't come up with a plan of how he was going to introduce this child-version of Sasori to the organization. 'Well,' he thought to himself, finally landing the bird on the ground. 'Today was a big success, maybe it's time to undo this jutsu.'

"That was so much fun, Deidara, can we do it again tomorrow?! Please?" Sasori slid off the bird, bouncing up and down in excitement. The blond jumped down, putting a hand on the child's shoulder. With a poof, the bird disappeared.

"I'm all out of clay, hm," he explained. Then, noticing the pout on the former puppet's face, "But tell you what, you can help me make some more tomorrow. Does that sound okay?"

"Yes!" Sasori hugged around the bomber's legs. " _Then_ can we do it again?"

"Sure, hm." Deidara started leading them back to the base. Maybe one more day wouldn't hurt. After all, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity; once Sasori was back to normal, he'd already be wise to Deidara's little trick. The blond would probably never be able to cast another jutsu on the puppet again. Might as well make this one worthwhile. He could hide Sasori another day, as long as Kisame hadn't blabbed about it, there would no problem at all.

They reached the base just as the sun set behind the mountains, casting the forest in darkness. Deidara opened the old house's door a crack, peering inside. The living room was lit, but no one occupied the space. Satisfied with this information, the blond grabbed Sasori's arm, pulling him inside and quietly closing the door behind him. He took another look around before almost tiptoeing across the room. There was a loud _thud_ behind him and he whipped around, already coming up with some sort of explanation.

"Ow!" Deidara felt Sasori pull his arm out of his grasp, kneeling down to rub his shin. "I hit the table…" Tears appeared in his eyes, and Deidara panicked.

"Oh no, you can't cry!" he hissed, scooping the boy up and throwing caution to the wind as he ran down the hall, slamming Sasori's door open and practically flying inside. He flung Sasori onto the bed before going back to shut and lock the door. "Hey, hey, it's okay, hm." He turned back to the child, crossing the room to sit next to him on the bed. Sasori sniffled, still dizzy from being picked up so quickly, and then thrown. "Sorry, but we don't want those other guys knowing you're here. Where's it hurt?"

Sasori used a sleeve to wipe tears off his cheek before pulling up the cloak, showing Deidara a nasty-looking bruise.

"Damn, Sasori, how hard'd you hit it?" As if the sight of the bruise made it hurt more, the boy began crying again. "Shh, hey now, it's not that bad, hm." Deidara scratched the back of his head, unsure of what to do. He had to get him to calm down soon, if someone heard him crying, there'd be major trouble.

"C-can you kiss it better?" Sasori cried, leaning back in the bed and presenting his leg to the blond.

Deidara did a double-take after fully comprehending what Sasori had just said. "Uh…" With the threat of Sasori crying even louder if he refused, the blond sighed, hoping that if he did this, the kid would shut up. An idea struck a split second later, and he reached his hand toward the bruise, pressing the hand-mouth against it. Upon seeing this, Sasori immediately burst into laughter; Deidara chuckled, relieved. He pulled his hand away and stood up, satisfied. "Okay, keep it down now. I'm gonna go grab you something to eat, and then you need to go to sleep."

"Sleep? But the sun just barely went down!" Sasori sat up, a familiar frown on his face.

"Ugh, fine, you can stay up a bit later, but you can't make any noise, alright? Hm." Deidara left the room, once again telling Sasori to stay put. He found some leftover fish in the fridge and heat it up on the stove, recalling how fun the day had been. He couldn't remember a time where he'd actually seen Sasori enjoy himself like this. Sure, there were the various missions they'd gone on where Sasori had seemed to show emotions that weren't boredom or irritation, but those few moments where the redhead had seemed even somewhat amused never lasted long. The puppet just never seemed to let himself have fun. At least not how Deidara thought fun should be.

He brought the fish into Sasori's room, happy to find his partner still standing where he'd left him.

"You like fish?" He gave the child a plate.

"Yeah." Sasori sat down on the bed to eat, looking around the room at all the puppets on the shelves. "Whose puppets are these? They're so cool." Deidara nearly choked.

"Oh, uh, they…belong to my partner…Hiruko, hm."

"So, this is his room?" Sasori stood up and set his plate down on the desk, opening one of the drawers to peek inside.

"Yeah, but he's away on a mission right now, so it's going to be yours until he returns," Deidara lied. "I wouldn't touch anything, hm."

"Oh, okay." The redhead got the hint, closing the drawer and picking up his plate again. They ate in silence and Deidara took their plates back to the kitchen once they finished. "Can we do something fun?" Sasori asked upon his return.

Remembering that he still had to fix the hole in his wall before Kakuzu came back to the base, Deidara nodded. "Sure." He grabbed the hammer he'd pretended to come in for earlier, grabbing a box of nails as well. "Follow me and keep quiet. We're going to my room." Thankfully, no one was in the hallway and they were able to enter Deidara's room without any complications.

"What happened in here?" Sasori asked upon seeing the destruction.

"Early detonation," Deidara explained, waving it off. "Happens every now and then while I'm mixing clay. Usually I go and bug Sa-" Deidara caught himself. "…Hiruko, until the dust settles, hm." Sasori didn't notice the slip, focused instead on the wood piled up near the hole. Deidara had him sit down while he began his work.

"Can I help?" Sasori asked after ten minutes of watching Deidara.

The blond nodded, handing the redhead a nail. "Hold this right there against the wood." Deidara lifted the hammer and started hitting the nail into the wood. He was surprised Sasori hadn't flinched his hand away. Wasn't the that first reaction of any child? Seeing this wasn't the case with Sasori, they continued working until the boards were properly in the wall. Deidara stood up and back a few steps to admire the work. "Alright, since I was planning on using my clay instead of plaster, the rest of this wall will have to wait until tomorrow when I've gotten more clay, hm."

"Wouldn't that be a bad idea?" Sasori raised his eyebrow. "What if it blows up again while you're fixing it?"

"…Alright, time to go to bed, now. Hm." Ignoring his partner's protests, Deidara shushed him and led him back down the hall to his room. The bomber pulled the blankets off the bed and shook them out, trying to rid them of dust. After instructing Sasori to climb into bed, the blond let the blankets fall onto the child. "Get some sleep tonight, and I'll come wake you up in the morning when I'm ready to go find some clay." Deidara turned to cross the room but a cry from Sasori stopped him. "What? What is it? Hm."

"It's kinda dark in here, can't we leave the door open a crack?"

"Hell no!" Upon seeing the redhead's bottom lip quivering, Deidara quickly improvised, pulling one of Sasori's puppets off the wall. "But here, this will keep you safe."

"But I thought you said that Hiruko-"

"Forget what I said. He won't mind this one, just don't break it, hm." He smiled and gave into the urge to ruffle Sasori's hair. "Goodnight. Hm."

"Night, Uncle." Sasori curled up next to the puppet, already drifting off to sleep. Deidara smirked, chuckling a little to himself at being called 'Uncle' before leaving the room, making sure to close the door tightly. He walked into the living room, not really feeling tired yet, and sat on one of the old couches. He looked over at the cushion farthest from him, smiling to himself at its charred state. That had been one of his "accidental" detonations. At least that's what he'd told Hidan when the clay bomb had gone off in his face.

As if even thinking about the jashinist was enough to summon him, the front door opened and an irritated Kakuzu and a cursing Hidan burst through it. "We got the mission done, didn't we?" Hidan was saying to the back of Kakuzu's head as the miser stomped through the living room.

"Yes, but you didn't have to make my bounty unidentifiable, you bastard!" Deidara watched as, in a fit of rage, one of Kakuzu's hands darkened. The masked shinobi suddenly turned toward his light-haired counterpart, slamming his hardened fist directly into Hidan's chest. Blood immediately started pouring from the wound as Kakuzu ripped his hand out of the zealot's chest, holding a still-beating heart.

A scream alerted everyone toward the hallway. Deidara was almost afraid to look, but he forced himself to; sure enough, Sasori stood in the hallway opening, looking at the scene in horror. Itachi was standing behind him, looking like he'd just woken up, and staring down at Sasori with a slightly confused look on his face.

"Whose fucking kid is that?" Hidan shouted before turning to glare at Kakuzu. "And give me back my heart, you greedy bastard."

"I thought I told you to stay in bed, Sasori!" Deidara yelled at the terrified child. Everyone snapped their heads toward Deidara before looking back at the small child.

"What did you just say?" Kakuzu growled at the blond, slamming his hand back into Hidan's chest to return his heart. The jashinist grunted but that didn't distract him from Sasori. Itachi ran a hand through his hair before kneeling down next to the red head.

"Is it really you, Sasori? What happened?"

Deidara stood up from the couch, crossing the room in a split second and pulled the child away from Itachi. "I'll explain it in a bit, guys, just let me put him back to bed, hm." He dragged the crying child down the hall before anyone could stop him. "Damnit, Sasori, this is why I told you not to leave the room."

"I'm s-sorry!" the child cried, still shocked from what he'd seen. Then, "W-why didn't that guy die?"

"Oh, Hidan? He's immortal, nothing can kill him, hm." Deidara sighed, reaching for Sasori's bedroom door. "But that's not important right now, you-"

"I was scared, please don't make me sleep in there again!" The red head clung onto Deidara's leg tightly. "Can I sleep in your room with you? Please?"

"For the love of- Alright, fine!" The bomber led them down to his room, opening the door and prying Sasori off of him. "You get into bed and I'll come back in a bit. I have to go explain to them that you're, uh, staying with us for a while, alright? Hm."

"Okay…"

"Good." He slammed the door and did a 180, heading back toward the living room. He decided that after he told everyone what had happened, he'd undo the jutsu.

Tonight.


	3. The Secret's Out Again

Since the cat was out of the bag, Deidara had no choice but to undo the jutsu, even if he'd wanted to keep Sasori as a child for just a little bit longer. After explaining things to Itachi and the zombie combo, of course the Uchiha had told Deidara that he needed to turn Sasori back. Now.

Kakuzu hadn't really seemed to care, as long as Sasori wasn't adding any cost to the household. Hidan, on the other hand, was getting a real kick out of the news. "Aw, we can't keep him like this a bit longer? I just wanna pick on him a little. He's never any fun and now we have a chance to mess with him without him threatening to add us to his fucking creepy ass puppet collection."

"It's too dangerous to keep him in this state," Itachi explained, giving a meaningful look at Deidara, who glared at the noir before turning away with a 'hm!'. "If someone were to find out that one of the Akatsuki members were vulnerable like this- Will you knock it off, Hidan?"

" _Vulnerable_!" Hidan laughed, slapping Kakuzu's back. "That's a riot!" A swift punch to his still-healing chest, delivered by Kakuzu of course, was enough to shut the silver-haired man up. At least for a little bit. His chuckles continued as Itachi spoke again.

"Where's the scroll you were talking about, Deidara?"

The blond grunted, pulling it out of his sleep and opening it. He held it away from the Uchiha when he reached for it. "Hey, _I'll_ undo the jutsu. I just have to read the part that explains how, hm."

"Fine." Itachi nodded, hand retreating back to his side. "Does anyone else know about this?"

"Just Kisame." Deidara turned to walk back to his room, skimming over the scroll to find the reversal part. As he opened his door, Sasori sprung on him, trapping him in a bear hug. The scroll slipped out of Deidara's hands and fell to the ground. The blond sighed, trying to pry the child off of him. "Alright, let's get you to bed, hm."

"I'm still sleeping with you, right?" Sasori clung onto his legs, refusing to let go until his question was answered.

"Yeah, yeah, just get into bed. I have something to do, so I'm gonna stay up a bit longer." Sasori released him and Deidara led him to the bed, pulling the blankets over him and tucking him in. He then retrieved the scroll from the ground before sitting next to the bed and opening it.

"Deidara?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm thirsty." Deidara looked up at the ceiling in annoyance before replacing the scroll into his sleeve and standing.

"Stay here – _I_ _mean it_ – and I'll go get you a glass of water." He gave Sasori a warning look and the red head nodded, snuggling deeper into the covers.

"Can you leave the door open a crack?"

"Sure, why not." It's not as though anyone else ever came down this hallway. Pein and Konan didn't stay at the base – only visited – and Deidara hadn't seen Zetsu around lately. Konan had left earlier, it seemed. All the occupants of the hideout already knew about Sasori, so it probably didn't matter at this point.

Kisame and Itachi were in the kitchen when Deidara walked in. The two partners were sitting at the table, drinking tea and going over mission details from the looks of it. The Uchiha looked up, giving Deidara a meaningful look.

"He's thirsty. I haven't had time to undo the jutsu yet." Deidara ignored the smirk Kisame was giving him, instead turning toward the cupboards and taking down a cup. He filled it with tap water and got the hell out of the kitchen before the two other occupants could burn a hole in the back of his head. "Here, hm." He handed the cup to Sasori once back in his room. His partner sat up and took a tiny sip before handing it back to Deidara. "That's it? You're not going to drink the rest?"

The red head shook his head. "No thanks." When he didn't lay back down, the blond asked him what was wrong. "I have to go to the bathroom."

Deidara took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Alright, come on." He led Sasori to the bathroom, waiting outside the door until the boy was done, and then took him back to the room. "Okay, now no more excuses. You have to go to sleep now. Hm."

Sasori climbed into bed, sniffling. "I miss my granny. And my parents." The bomber's expression softened.

"Hey now, it's okay. You can write them some letters tomorrow, and your granny will be back to pick you up in no time, hm. Just try to get some sleep, we have a lot to do tomorrow." This seemed to calm Sasori down, and by the time Deidara sat down and reopened the scroll, the kid was passed out. 'Finally,' the bomber thought to himself. He stayed up late, first skimming through the scroll, then reading it in detail. A sense of horror slowly grew in his stomach as he read on and on. Orochimaru, the bastard, hadn't written how to undo the jutsu. "Fuck."

He ran a hand through his blond locks, glancing over at his sleeping partner. Sasori looked so peaceful. Deidara had never seen him sleep before, though he knew the redhead did. He didn't sleep often, and only enough to keep his chakra balanced, Sasori had told him after Deidara had bugged him nonstop about it.

Deidara yawned, stretching his arms above him. As much as he hated to, he was going to have to ask Itachi for help. If there was something in this scroll that the blond wasn't seeing, the Uchiha would find it. Now that the secret was out, it was best to return Sasori to his normal self as soon as possible. He didn't want to risk Zetsu or, heaven forbid, Pein finding out about this. It wouldn't turn out too well. Deciding that it'd be smart not to wake up Itachi just to have him read a scroll, Deidara climbed into bed next to Sasori, cautiously pushing the boy toward the wall so they weren't pressed together. Might as well get some sleep; he had a lot to do tomorrow, after all.

Xxx

"Deidara…" The blond grunted, turning over in his bed and pulling a pillow over his head. "Deidara, wake up."

"Leave me alone…hm." He received a hard shove in reply, jolting him awake. He scrambled to sit up and turned to look at Sasori. The former puppet was glaring at him.

"Wake up, you promised you'd take me with you to get more clay."

"Ugh…okay, but I have to take care of something first." Sasori sighed, climbing over Deidara and jumping out of bed. "And where are you going?" he asked as the red head reached for the door handle.

Sasori turned to him. " _I'm_ going to the bathroom." Where did all this attitude come from? Shrugging it off, Deidara nodded, giving him permission. It's not like he needed to stay hidden anymore. He got out of bed and changed his clothes, deciding to leave his Akatsuki cloak off for now. Grabbing the scroll, he headed for the kitchen. It'd be best to wait until Itachi came down for breakfast before asking him to take a look at the scroll.

Kakuzu was at the kitchen table, counting his money as usual and muttering to himself. If Deidara paid any attention, he's sure he would hear threats toward Hidan in there somewhere. Instead, he decided to rummage through the cupboards for food, since Sasori was likely going to complain about hunger as soon as he was out of the bathroom.

"Where's the rugrat?" Kakuzu asked a few minutes later when Deidara sat down across from him, two bowls of porridge in front of him. As Deidara opened his mouth to answer, a scream came from down the hallway, followed by thunderous footsteps, heading to the kitchen. A moment later, Sasori burst in, white as a ghost. Upon seeing Deidara, he threw himself onto the blond, knocking the table and spilling some of the porridge. Hidan ran in next, a gleeful look on his face, scythe in hand.

"Damnit, Hidan," Kakuzu growled, glaring daggers at his partner. "It's too early for your bullshit."

"Relax, old man, I was just having a little fun."

"Well, knock it off, hm." Deidara pulled Sasori off his leg, setting him down in the chair next to him. He pushed one of the bowls in front of him. "Here."

Hidan sat down at the end of the table, smirk still present on his face. "So, why _did_ you turn the puppet fucker into a child?" Deidara gave the Jashinist a warning look, nodding his head toward Sasori. The redhead was too interest in stirring his food around to have paid any attention to Hidan's words. The zealot seemed to get the message, a bored look crossing his face "Well, that's no fun. He has no idea that he's an Akat-"

"Don't you have to sacrifice to your stupid god or something?" Kakuzu interrupted, slamming his fist down on the table. Deidara made a mental note to thank the miser later. He continued to eat as Hidan started throwing a fit about Jashin, swinging his scythe around as he spoke. Sasori watched him with a curious look as he ate his porridge.

"Who's Jashin?" the child asked, effectively halting Hidan's rant. The zealot brightened and opened his mouth to explain before being interrupted by Itachi, who finally walked into the kitchen, followed by Kisame.

"You haven't undone the jutsu." It was more of a statement than a question, and it made Deidara's blood boil. He held the scroll up, irritation crossing his face as he refused to look at the Uchiha.

"I couldn't find how to reverse it. I stayed up almost all damn night reading it." He felt Itachi take the scroll from him, heard it being opened as the Sharingan-weilder read skimmed it briefly.

"Unfortunately, Kisame and I have a mission we must prepare for." It was then that Deidara realized the two were clad in their Akatsuki robes and hats. "However, we should be back late tonight or early tomorrow, if things go as planned. I'll look at the scroll then. Why not have Kakuzu look at it in the meantime?"

The miser narrowed his eyes, reluctant to do any sort of work after just coming back from a mission last night. However, he held out his hand, accepting the scroll from Itachi. "I'll see what I can do."

Kisame, who had been occupying himself with smirking at Sasori, effectively scaring the boy, asked, "So what are you going to do with him in the meantime?"

Deidara stood up from the table, collecting their dishes and heading to the sink. "He's coming with me to find more detonating clay, hm."

"We're gonna fix the hole in the wall!" Sasori exclaimed proudly. Kakuzu looked up from the scroll to glare at him.

"What hole?" Sasori shrunk in his seat, causing Hidan to burst into laughter.

"This kid's a riot!" The zealot grinned. "Hey, after you're done doing all that boring stuff with Blondie over there, why don't you come with me and I'll teach you all about the way of Jashin?"

"We're not going to have any time," Deidara said, quickly coming back to the table and grabbing Sasori's arm before he could accept Hidan's offer. And before Kakuzu could question him further about the hole. "We'll be back later tonight, hm." He'd be damned if they had _two_ Jashinists in the Akatsuki.

Once outside the base, Deidara summoned his clay bird. He helped Sasori onto it, chuckling at the giddy look in his partner's eyes.

"Hiruko usually doesn't like flying," Deidara commented, smirking. "It's a nice change to have someone who actually looks forward to it as much as I do. Hm!" He hopped onto the large bird's back, standing behind Sasori so he could keep an eye on him, and they took flight. There was a mountain not too far from the base that had been supplying Deidara with his clay, so that's where they were going.

"After we're done fixing the wall, can we come back out and blow stuff up again?" Sasori glanced up at him with a pleading expression. Deidara grinned.

"First of all, it's called art. Art is an explosion, got it?"

Sasori made a face. "I never thought of it as art before…"

The blond rolled his eyes. Typical Sasori. "Well, it is. True art is fleeting, lasting only a mere second before exploding, hm!"

"Well, if you say so," Sasori agreed. "It _is_ pretty like art." Deidara ruffled his hair, smiling wide. That was a good start. He really wished he had some way to record Sasori agreeing with his definition of art. It'd be such a laugh to show the puppet was he was back to normal. Of course, maybe it was for the best. If Sasori ever found out about this, Deidara would be poisoned and turned into a puppet within minutes.

After about a half hour of flying, they landed down onto one of the mountain's ledges near a cave opening. The now-older Akatsuki member jumped off the bird, grabbing Sasori's hand to help him down. "It doesn't look it, but there's a ton of clay in that cave if you dig deep enough. I usually use explosives, but there's no need for any right now – I took care of that the last time I was here, hm." He led the child into the cave, reaching into one of his clay pouches and pulling out the flashlight he'd put in there when he got dressed that morning.

He made quick work of collecting the clay into his pouches, watching Sasori out of the corner of his eye as the redhead explored around him. He wondered if Kakuzu was having any luck with the scroll. Probably not; reading hidden messages wasn't the miser's strong suit. If anyone was going to find any hidden messages – especially from Orochimaru – it would be Itachi. Sasori would also be a great choice for that kind of work, having been the snake-nin's partner briefly, but alas, he was of no use as a shinobi in his current condition. Not that Deidara minded. It was a little refreshing having a kid around. It gave Deidara an excuse to have a little fun.

After collecting as much clay as he could, Deidara led Sasori back to the bird, and two had a perfect repeat of yesterday, staying out late into the evening creating Deidara's art. The blond made sure not to use as much clay as before, and even put some aside to plaster the wall with. The sun had been down for an hour when they finally landed outside the hideout.

Kakuzu and Hidan were sitting in the living room, the miser pouring over the scroll in concentration and Hidan cleaning his weapon. The immortal duo glanced up at Deidara and Sasori's arrival. "Find anything yet?" the blonde asked, motioning to the scroll.

Kakuzu sighed, closing it and laying it next to him on the couch. "Nothing. Hopefully Itachi will be able to find something" He stood up. "If that bastard Orochimaru was even smart enough to include a way to reverse the jutsu." He left the room, probably to go make sure his money hadn't walked off and spent itself. Deidara crossed the room and picked up the scroll, sighing. Though he did enjoy having fun with Sasori like this, it was only a matter of time before Pein assigned them a mission. The truth would have to come out then, and the bomber didn't want to think of how the leader would react once he found out that a member of his organization had been basically rendered useless.

Hidan seemed to be thinking the same thing. He smirked and teased Deidara, "Man, Leader's gonna kick your ass when he finds out what you did to the puppet fucker."

"He isn't _going_ to find out," the blond spat, pausing when he noticed Sasori staring at them suspiciously. "Anyway, come on, kid, we still have work to do in my room."

"Isn't he a little young for you?" Hidan smirked, dodging the clay bomb that was thrown at him a second later.

"Quit detonating your bombs in the fucking house!" Kakuzu shouted from an unknown location. Deidara grumbled, grabbing Sasori's arm and dragging him to his room.

"Why's everyone making such a big deal about that scroll?" Sasori asked once they were inside the bomber's bedroom, the broken wall still an eye sore. "Is it important? And who's the puppet? Are they talking about Hiruko? Is Hiruko a puppet?"

"Just don't worry about it right now," Deidara grumbled, pulling some clay out of his pouches. "Make yourself useful and help me plaster this wall."

"I'm hungry," the red head complained, obviously trying to get out of doing any work.

"Then go make yourself something to eat, or ask Hidan. I'm busy at the moment."

"Okay!" Sasori stood and ran out of the room, leaving Deidara to fix the wall by himself.

"Little brat," Deidara mused, smirking a little. He finished his work in no time at all without Sasori there to slow him down, and he decided to relax a little on his bed until the former puppet returned. His eyes had just closed when he heard a very stern _female_ voice at his door.

"Deidara, can you explain this?" Konan stood in his doorway, motioning to the guilty looking child next to her.

"Actually, he can't." Hidan popped his head into the doorway, grinning like a madman. Konan narrowed her eyes at him and he backed away.

"This child says he's Sasori. Is this true?"

Deidara sighed, sitting up and nodding. "Yeah, it's true. Have him sit out there with that bastard Hidan and I'll explain." Well, now _everyone_ was going to know about this. Konan would no doubt tell Pein, and Deidara would be lucky to still call himself an Akatsuki member if he survived what the leader would do to him.

Fantastic.


	4. Orochimaru's Chest

"…and now we're waiting for Itachi to come back from the mission he and Kisame were sent out on, hm."

Konan held the scroll in front of her, studying it as if it were an ancient artifact. "You found this in the basement, you said?"

"Yeah, it fell out of a chest I knocked over."

"What else was inside the chest?"

"A bunch of other scrolls…" Deidara's eyes widened. "Oh!" He sprung up from his seat on the bed, running past Konan and heading for the stairs to the basement. The Akatsuki's only female member followed after him, rolling her eyes at his stupidity.

Deidara clicked on the dim light after descending the steps, immediately spotting the chest where he'd knocked it over. He quickly walked to it, righting it and looking inside at the various scrolls. Konan glanced over his shoulder at them. "We should start reading through them, but be careful. Orochimaru could've set a trap into one of them." She took out two of the scrolls, cautiously opening them and skimming their contents. Finding nothing interesting, she set them aside and grabbed two more. Deidara followed her lead, opening a scroll and reading the first few sentences.

"Hidan's converting Sasori to Jashinism." Konan and Deidara turned toward the voice. Kisame and Itachi stood at the top of the stairs, the shark-nin smirking in amusement.

"Any luck?" Itachi asked, stepping down the stairs and nodding to Konan.

"This chest contains some of Orochimaru's other scrolls. We're going to skim through them and see if any of them hold the answer for returning Sasori back to normal." She handed him the Rejuvenation scroll. "If you'll please look this over, it'd be a great help."

"Of course." Itachi unzipped his Akatsuki cloak and took a seat on one of the many boxes scattered in the basement, deciding to get right to business. Kisame yawned, stretching.

"I think I'm going to head to bed. Oh yeah." He reached into his own cloak and pulled out their mission report. "Since you're already here, Konan, would you mind giving this to Leader?"

"Thank you, Kisame, Itachi." She pocketed it and returned to her task, dismissing the swordsman. "How long has Sasori been this way, Deidara?"

"Oh, uh, two days now, hm," he said sheepishly, keeping his eyes on the scroll in front of him.

"You said you performed this jutsu on Sasori so he could relive his childhood, correct?" Konan questioned. Deidara nodded.

"Yeah, I was only trying to get him to loosen up a bit, hm." He sighed. "I guess I should've made sure there was a way to reverse it before I tried it."

"That's what any normal person would do," Itachi commented, not taking his eyes off his work. "But then again, a normal person wouldn't have performed an unknown jutsu on their comrade in the first place."

"What are you trying to say, Uchiha?" Deidara growled, clenching a fist around the scroll he was holding.

"Deidara, enough," Konan scolded. "Focus on the task at hand. It'd be in your best interest to find out how to undo this jutsu _before_ I report to Pein."

"Wait, you're _seriously_ gonna tell the leader about this?"

"Of course. A member of the Akatsuki is out of commission, I have to tell him _why_ Sasori won't be able to take on any missions." She set down another useless scroll. "Pein will be annoyed, naturally, but if we figure out how to reverse it, it won't be too much of an issue."

Deidara sighed, squinting in the dim orange light. "Yeah, I guess, hm." He stood, lifting the chest. "I'm gonna take these upstairs where there's decent lighting."

Konan nodded. "That's a good idea." She turned to Itachi. "You should go up, too. You shouldn't strain your eyes, especially after having just come back from a mission."

The Uchiha stood, following Deidara up the stairs after nodding and silently thanking Pein's right hand woman. Once upstairs, the three narrowly avoided getting sliced with Hidan's three-bladed scythe, which wasn't anything surprising. What was surprising was that its wielder was Sasori.

"Put that down!" Deidara shouted as the kid nearly decapitated himself with the heavy weapon. Itachi grabbed Sasori by the neck of his cloak, pulling him away just in time. The scythe hit the ground with a loud clatter, scuffing the floorboards. "Damn it, Hidan, hm!"

The zealot laughed from his spot on the couch, finding great amusement in the situation. "Aw, c'mon, you three ruined the show…You should've seen the look on your faces, though!"

Konan glared. "You can't be messing around like that with him."

Hidan groaned loudly. "This is the _only_ time I can fuck with him a bit, you can't tell me we're not allowed to have fun while he's like this."

"Like what?" Sasori asked, struggling to free himself of Itachi's grasp.

"Nevermind it," Itachi said, releasing him. He knelt down so he was eye level with the red head. "Don't pay any attention to anything Hidan says, he's not someone you should look up to."

"Hey!"

"It's getting late, hm." Deidara shifted the chest in his arms. "It's time for bed, Sasori."

"But I'm not tired, and I'm still hungry." The child crossed his arms. Konan smirked, chuckling.

"You go on, Deidara, and see if any of those scrolls are useful. I can entertain him for a bit."

"Alright, then. Hm." The blond left for his room, struggling with the chest. Straightening up, Itachi stretched before taking a seat on the couch to return to _his_ work. Hidan grew bored with the situation and moved to pick up his scythe from the floor before retiring for the night.

"What do you want to eat, Sasori?" Konan asked as she lead him to the kitchen. She sat him on a chair and smiled. "My name's Konan, by the way."

"Anything's fine," he answered. Truthfully, he wasn't all that hungry. He just didn't want to go to sleep just yet. Playing with Hidan's weapon had been fun, but he knew there had to be something more exciting to do in this house. He remembered the puppets in Hiruko's room. Deidara had told him not to touch them, and he wouldn't dare to, but then again, the blond had also let him sleep with that one puppet. Maybe that one would be okay to play with. "I'll be right back," he said to Konan, who had turned toward the cupboards to find something to cook.

"Alright," she answered. "Don't be too long, though."

Sasori ran down the hall to Hiruko's room, creaking the door open and turning on the light. The puppet was still there on the bed where he'd left it. Stepping inside, he took a moment to admire the rest of the creations lining the room. They were all so detailed and all so different. He walked to the bed and picked up the one Deidara had allowed him to touch, inspecting it before turning and bringing it back to the kitchen with him. "Look, Konan."

She did, biting her lip. "Are you sure you should be playing with that? It could be dangerous…"

"Deidara said Hiruko wouldn't mind if I played with this one," Sasori countered back, holding the puppet close to him.

"Well, okay…but just be careful with it. Hiruko sometimes puts traps in his puppets." Konan turned back to the stove, stirring the pot of soup. She had to give Deidara some credit with the Hiruko thing, but to let Sasori play with a puppet used for killing shinobi? She decided that she'd let the child play with the puppet tonight, but tomorrow she'd lock all the puppets up in Sasori's room. There was too much risk in the red head accidentally being poisoned. Then Pein would _really_ be upset.

She put some soup into a bowl and set it down in front of him. "Thanks," he said, placing the puppet in the seat next to him and taking the spoon she held out to him. She watched him eat for a bit, worrying about what would happen if they couldn't undo the jutsu. The Akatsuki had no use for a child, and it's not like they could wait for Sasori to grow up. More than likely, Sasori wouldn't grow up to be a puppet master either. He'd be utterly useless. While Pein wasn't a monster, the orders would be to send Sasori off to fend for himself, or to kill him. While none of the Akatsuki were particularly close, losing a comrade was never a good experience.

She sighed and Sasori looked up from his bowl. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing. Just thinking, is all." She smiled to reassure him. "Finish eating and we'll play a game."

"Okay!"

He was finished less than a minute later, and she decided that they would play hide and seek. That would wear him out. "Alright, I'll be 'it' first. You go hide while I count."

Sasori took off running immediately, giggling. Konan couldn't help but smile as she counted, listening to Sasori's clumsy footsteps thunder throughout the base.

"Ready or not, here I come," she called out after she finished counting, turning and heading down one of the hallways. She'd heard him run this way, and this side of the house held Hidan and Kakuzu's rooms, a bathroom, and a room that Pein used for his rare meetings. She decided to try the bathroom first. "Are you in here?" she asked as she stepped inside, smirking toward the shower curtain.

She quickly pulled it aside and saw that the tub was empty. Seeing nowhere else he could hide, she turned and walked across the hall to the meeting room. She was about to walk in when she heard a shout coming from Kakuzu's room. "Dammit, you brat!"

The door to his room burst open and the stitched-nin stepped out, holding a dangling Sasori by the back of his cloak. "Put me down!"

"What the hell do you think you're doing in my room this late at night?! Trying to steal my money?"

"Kakuzu." Both the miser and child snapped their heads towards Konan, realizing she was standing there. "Put him down, please."

Kakuzu growled but dropped Sasori to the floor. "The brat was sneaking around my room."

"What the fuck are you yelling about now, you old bastard?" Hidan poked his head out of his bedroom door, slamming it just in time to avoid the miser's hardened, detatched hand flying at him.

"I'm sorry, we were just playing a game," Konan apologized, helping Sasori off the floor. "Don't worry, he won't bother you again."

Kakuzu grumbled under his breath and nodded, returning his hand to its normal place and condition before going back into his room. Konan could hear coins being shifted around and knew that Kakuzu was going to count his money and make sure it was still all there.

"Come on, Sasori, I think that's enough fun for tonight. We can play more tomorrow."

"Aw, but we didn't even really get to play," he whined, refusing to take her outstretched hand. "Can't we do something else?"

"No, I'm sorry," she answered, leading him down the hall toward the bathroom. "But you can have a bath; you're covered in clay and dust."

"I'm not _that_ dirty," he complained, but followed her into the bathroom. She started a warm bath and turned to him, wondering what she was going to do about clothes. She supposed for now she would just have to wash the cloak he currently had on, and maybe tomorrow they could go into town and buy something that at least fit him better.

"Alright, take that off and start working on getting all that clay off you," she said, taking the cloak before he could drop it on the floor. "I'm going to be in the kitchen washing this if you need me, okay?"

"Kay," he sighed, testing the water with his toes. She left the room, leaving the door open in case he called out for her. She walked through the living room, where Itachi was still studying the scroll.

"Any luck?"

"I think there's a few clues, but I still haven't finished the scroll," he answered, not looking up.

"That's something, at least. Thank you, Itachi." He nodded, still intent on the scroll. She continued into the kitchen, grabbing the puppet that was still seated at the table and taking it into Sasori's room. She threw it onto the bed and shut the door, locking it with a seal for good measure. After that, she went back into the kitchen and went to work washing the old cloak. She cursed Deidara; clay was almost impossible to get out of clothes. Ten minutes of scrubbing later, the dark green fabric was as clean as it was ever going to get. She wrung out the material and hung it up over the sink. It'd probably be a little damp when he went to bed, but it was better than nothing.

She walked back to the bathroom to check on him, surprised he hadn't already gotten out himself.

"Sasori?" She looked into the bathroom, frowning when she found it empty. The bath water still looked clean, which meant that the little red head hadn't even gotten in. "Oh boy." If he wasn't in the bathroom, then where could he be? "Sasori, where'd you go?"

Hearing no answer, she began to panic a bit. She left the bathroom and rushed into the living room.

"You didn't see Sasori come through here, did you?"

Itachi glanced up, frowning. "No, I thought he was taking a bath."

"He's not in there anymore." She ran a hand through her hair. "Will you help me look for him? I'll go get Deidara, too." Though it was extremely unlikely, with all their security measures and such, her mind flashed an idea that someone, somehow, had found out about Sasori's vulnerability and had broken into the base and taken him. Orochimaru.

Maybe he was alerted somehow whenever the jutsu was activated. Maybe he'd been waiting for someone to use it, and now that one of the Akatsuki members were under the rejuvenation, they'd be easy for him to kidnap. If Orochimaru had the reversal for the jutsu, he could return Sasori back to normal and extract classified information from him. If the ex member got ahold of any of the Akatsuki's plans, it could ruin them.

"Deidara, is Sasori in there with you?" she called once outside the blond's door. She heard fumbling from inside before Deidara opened the door.

"What? I thought you were entertaining him for a bit, hm." He frowned. "I've been going through these scrolls like you asked me to, I didn't know you sent him back here again."

"I didn't. I was having him take a bath while I washed his clothes and when I went to check on him, he was gone."

"Well, fuck, hm." He pushed past her and ran down the hallway. "If Orochimaru has anything to do with this…"

"Those were my thoughts exactly." She followed him down the hallway, checking everywhere. "I need to tell Pein about this-"

"Found him!" Itachi called suddenly. Konan and Deidara took off toward where his voice had come from, finding both the Uchiha and child in the meeting room across the hall from the bathroom. "He was hiding under the table." Itachi held the struggling boy's arm tight.

"Sasori, why the hell'd you hide from Konan like that? Hm!" Deidara yelled.

"Why didn't you answer me when I called?" Konan scolded, kneeling down and grabbing both of his arms to stop his struggling. "Do you have any idea how worried I was?"

Sasori bowed his head down, all fight leaving him. Konan sighed, relieved he hadn't been taken after all. "I'm sorry…"

"Why didn't you answer when I called you?" she asked again, a stern look on her face. He wasn't off the hook yet.

"I dunno…" He sniffled.

"Look at me, Sasori." He obeyed. "Answer my question."

"I didn't want to take a bath," he whined, rubbing his eyes. "I was scared."

Konan's expression softened. He _was_ quite young to have been left alone in the tub. "Hey, now, there's nothing to be afraid of. It's just water. And if anything happened, Hidan and Kakuzu are right down the hall-"

"I'm scared of the shark man!" Sasori cried, throwing himself into Konan's arms. Deidara and Itachi stared, frowning. Did Kisame really scare him that much? Suddenly, Itachi got an idea.

"Hey, I'll be right back." He walked off down the hall.

"It's okay, Sasori, hm." Deidara kneeled down and Sasori immediately latched on to him. "There's no reason to be afraid of Kisame; he's not a monster. He's just a big old teddy-"

"Choose your next words carefully, Deidara," Kisame growled. Deidara gasped and turned around, watching as Kisame rubbed sleep out of his eyes. "Honestly, I'm woken up for _this_?"

"Please, Kisame." Itachi put a hand on his partner's shoulder and the taller sighed, kneeling down next to the child.

"Look, I know I may _look_ scary…" He trailed off, unsure of what to say next. Itachi rolled his eyes.

"But there's no reason to be afraid of him."

"That's right," Konan continued. "He's the one who guards the house from bad people." Kisame raised an eyebrow.

"…That's right."

"R-really?" Sasori stared at him, trying to gauge if it was true.

"Of course," Kisame said. "Just today, Itachi and I got rid of a lot of bad people."

"Oh…Is that why you were gone all day?" The blue-skinned shinobi nodded and Deidara felt Sasori relax a bit.

"Can I go back to sleep now?" Kisame asked, standing up again. Konan chuckled.

"Of course. Thank you, Kisame."

"I'm going to see more about this scroll," Itachi said, rubbing his eyes and turning back to the living room. Deidara followed him, holding out one of the scrolls he'd been reading through and telling the Uchiha to take a look at it as well.

"C'mon, Sasori, let's get you cleaned up and ready for bed." Konan led the child back into the bathroom and put him in the tub. He seemed less stubborn this time, and she helped him scrub the clay out of his hair, once again cursing Deidara. Afterward, she dressed him in the still-damp cloak, leading him toward Deidara's room to sleep. She stopped in the living room when she noticed Itachi was passed out on the couch. "Itachi," she spoke, and his eyes snapped open. "Worry about the scroll tomorrow; you just came back from a mission, you should rest."

He remained silent as usual, but nodded to show he understood. Konan continued to Deidara's room, knocking and waiting. Sasori yawned below her. The blond opened the door a few moments later, looking haggard. "I feel like every little sentence could be a clue at this point, but at the same time, none of them seem related, hm."

"Don't worry about it anymore tonight, Deidara. Get some rest." She moved to leave but turned back toward him. "Oh, and don't use your exploding clay around Sasori unless you plan on cleaning it off of him."

"Okay, whatever, hm."

She nodded, sighing as she wondered how she was going to tell Pein about this. She figured she might as well do it tonight, and set off for the Rain village.


	5. To Each His Own

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, faved and/or followed this little fic so far. It's nice to know that others are enjoying reading it as much as I am writing it!

Xxx

 _Wham_!

"Ah!" Deidara jolted awake, pain radiating across his face. Looking down, he noticed blood on his chest and immediately became defensive, glancing around his room. He heard Sasori groan beside him and snapped his head to look at the boy. He blinked. Sasori's hand was balled into a fist, a bit of blood running down his tiny fingers. The blond lifted his own hand to his face, wiping the blood still coming from his nose. "Oh."

He relaxed as he realized that Sasori had hit him in his sleep. What a relief. He'd had a dream that Pein had found out about his little experiment, and the leader hadn't wasted any time making Deidara regret it. He still felt sore from the dream. But at least it _was_ just a dream.

Suddenly his bedroom door slammed open, effectively ruining any chance the blond had at falling back asleep, not that he wanted to. Hidan smirked from the doorway, scythe slung over his shoulder. "The leader's called a meeting. Itachi said he seemed pissed so I wouldn't be late if I were you. And leave the brat here." The zealot left the doorway, probably to go start shit with Kakuzu before the meeting.

"Ugh," Deidara groaned. It looked like his nightmare was going to come true after all. Swinging his feet over the edge of the bed, he glanced back at Sasori, wondering how Hidan's big mouth hadn't woken the child up. Ignoring it, he went to the bathroom to wash the dried blood off his face and chest, and to brush his hair. Afterwards, he got dressed, pulling his Akatsuki cloak on, hopefully not for the last time. He wandered into the living room, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

Itachi and Kisame, who were sitting on one of the couches, turned to look at him. He waved them off, not wanting any of their bullshit this morning. He found something to eat in the kitchen, picking at it as he wondered how the meeting would go down. Would Pein kick him out of the Akatsuki for this? Would he kill him?

There was only one way to find out. He pushed his plate of food away and stood up, walking to the meeting room and peeking in. Empty. Deciding to take Hidan's advice (for once), he went in and sat down near the end, farthest from where he knew Pein would be standing. Slowly, the other members started trickling in – even Zetsu made an appearance. His white half smiled at Deidara. "My, you've been quite the scientist, haven't you?"

Deidara ignored him, shoving his hand into one of his clay pouches and playing with it, the mouth palm chewing and forming the substance into different creatures. Finally, Konan entered the room, followed by Pein. The Akatsuki grew silent, watching their leader take his place at the head of the long table. Deidara tried not to shrink in his seat as all eyes turned to him, including Pein's.

Silence.

There was a long pause. Pein took a sip of tea from his '#1 Boss' mug. Kisame cleared his throat. Hidan shifted in his seat.

The silence was almost too much to bear; it was deafening. Deidara finally figured that maybe their leader was waiting for him to explain himself. He coughed.

"Leader, I-"

"You turned Sasori into a child?!" Pein's voice seemed to boom throughout the room, startling Deidara.

"Ah! Yeah, hm." He bit his lip, waiting for the organization's leader to speak first so he didn't interrupt him again.

"And you have no idea how to reverse the jutsu."

"No, but we're working on it, hm."

"Itachi and yourself, I know. Konan's informed me." Pein took another sip of tea before continuing, "I'm not going to ask why you felt the urge to render one of our valuable members useless. That's not important. What's important is returning him back to normal, and quickly."

"Itachi's been studying the Rejuvenation scroll that caused this, and he said he's found some clues," Konan spoke, turning to Pein. The orange-haired shinobi nodded.

"Itachi, your sole mission from now on is to decipher the scroll and inform Konan or myself of any clues you come across."

"Yes, sir."

"Deidara, you are to keep Sasori under lockdown until the jutsu is reversed. I don't want him leaving this base. With three members down, the rest of you will be expected to cover the missions I would've originally given to Sasori and Deidara. Kisame, you will go solo on missions until this mess is fixed."

"Not a problem, Leader," the shark-nin smirked.

"Wait, just because Deidara fucked up, we have to do his work, too?" Hidan stood, planting his palms on the table in disagreement.

"Sit down, Hidan!" Kakuzu yelled beside him, his arm darkening in preparation for an attack.

"Enough, I won't tolerate violence between comrades." Pein glared at the two. Hidan grumbled, sitting back down and crossing his arms while Kakuzu leaned back in his seat, color coming back in his arm. "I will keep in mind your need to recuperate between missions, however we must keep up with the demands that come in. We can't let out that one of our members are out of commission, and that the Akatsuki is weakened."

"More missions means more money," Kakuzu said, signaling that he didn't mind the extra work. He turned to his still-seething partner. "And more sacrifices for your damned rituals." Hidan grunted but nodded to show his agreement.

"Yeah, alright, fine."

"Now that everyone knows what they're expected to do, I call this meeting over." Pein gave Deidara a meaningful look before walking out the door. "Don't do this again."

The bomber let out a long sigh of relief once he was sure Pein had left the base. That was pretty…docile of the leader. Deidara had expected death, not babysitting duty.

"Well _, I'm_ going the fuck back to sleep before I have to do all these Jashin-damned extra missions." Hidan pushed his chair away from the table and stood up, giving Deidara a glare before storming back toward his room. Kakuzu rolled his eyes at his partner's attitude, getting up from the table and heading to his own room to count his money.

Deidara stretched before standing up, saying his farewells to Zetsu, who said he had to leave for an espionage mission.

"Deidara, wait, can I have Orochimaru's chest?" Itachi followed the art-enthusiast to his room, while Kisame went to make some tea.

The blond opened his bedroom door to retrieve the chest, but stopped short once he noticed that Sasori wasn't in the bed. "Oh, fuck." Well, maybe he'd gone to the bathroom. He turned to Itachi. "Go ahead and grab it, I'm going to make sure the little shit hasn't done another disappearing act, hm." He rushed to the bathroom, slamming the door open and, unfortunately, finding it empty. He ran to the other bathroom, giving it the same treating and achieving the same results. "Sasori? Sasori, where are you?"

"You lost him again?" Kisame called from the kitchen, and Deidara could practically hear the smirk in his voice.

"I didn't lose him, the brat's hiding again, hm!" But where?

A sudden, high-pitched scream from Hidan's room alerted them, and Deidara ran toward the zealot's room, busting the door open. The Jashinist was on the floor next to his bed, his hand clamped over his mouth, indicating that he must have let loose the girly scream. Sasori sat on the bed, laughing to himself. "You fucking brat!" Hidan yelled once he recovered from the shock of finding Sasori in his bed. "The hell's the matter with you?!"

"What's going on?" Deidara asked, stepping into the room and glaring at the child. Sasori quieted his laughing.

"It was just a joke," the red head explained, the smile dropping from his face when Deidara continued to glare. "I woke up alone, I was bored…"

"So you decide to mess with _me_?" Hidan growled, gripping the handle of his scythe tightly.

"Hidan, don't." Deidara sighed. "I'll take care of it. Sasori, let's go."

"Where are we going?" The former puppet climbed off of Hidan's bed, narrowly escaping as the zealot reached out for him.

"Knock it off, Hidan, hm!" Deidara grabbed Sasori's arm, pulling him out of the room and slamming the door. "We're going back to my room. We need to set up some ground rules, hm."

He led the child back to his room, ignoring the stream of curses still coming from Hidan's room. Once inside, he shut the door and sat Sasori on the bed.

"Okay, so our leader was here this morning-"

"You have a leader?"

"Yes, hm. Anyways, he was here this morning and he said that, uh, he didn't mind you staying with us, but there's one rule he wants you to follow: You can't go outside anymore. You have to stay inside the base from now on." He watched as Sasori processed the information, a frown appearing on the red head's face.

"Wait…that means we can't go outside and blow up your clay anymore?"

"Yeah, unfortunately, hm. I'm sorry." Damn, that really _did_ suck. He cleared his throat. "Secondly, you can't keep hiding from us. It's annoying, but we have to know where you are at all times, alright? Hm."

"These rules suck," Sasori complained, swinging his legs.

"Just promise you'll stop hiding from us."

"Fine. I promise." The red head didn't say it with much conviction, but Deidara didn't press it further.

"Just one more thing – try to stay out of people's rooms, yeah?" The blond chuckled, remembering the look of shock on Hidan's face. "Some people like their personal space. But you're welcome in here anytime. This is your room, too, alright?"

"Okay…these rules sound really boring, though."

"I know. It's just as bad for me, too, hm." Deidara stood up, remembering that he'd barely eaten his breakfast. "But we have to follow them. Now let's go get something to eat."

Xxx

"Itachi?"

The Uchiha, who had been previously sleeping face-down on the table, bolted upright, scattering scrolls everywhere. He turned to look toward the source of the noise, noticing that it was Sasori. "Yes?"

"What are you reading?"

"Oh, nothing. Just something for a mission." He rubbed his eyes. "Where's Deidara?"

"In the shower. He told me to stay in the room but I got bored." The child eyes the scrolls and Itachi quickly gathered them up. He had to take a break, if he was falling asleep without realizing it. "Can you play with me?"

Itachi smiled tiredly, lifting his hand and poking the child on the forehead. "Maybe later, Sas…ori." _Sasuke._ He'd almost said Sasuke's name. He frowned, standing up and gathering the scrolls into his arms before heading to his room. "I have work to do."

Sasori sighed, completely bored out of his mind. There had to be _something_ fun to do. The sound of Hidan and Kakuzu arguing down the hall alerted his attention. The zombie combo entered the kitchen a moment later, still cussing at each other.

"It's your damn rituals that always keep us behind schedule, you moron," Kakuzu growled, red and green eyes narrowing at his partner. Hidan's own purple ones looked up to the ceiling in annoyance.

"Oh, please, if we didn't have to go hundreds of miles out of our way just for your _precious_ bounties, we'd be done with missions in record time. We're the slowest team out of everyone here! Even Deidara and Sa-" The silver-haired man broke out into a coughing fit after a swift punch to the stomach, courtesy of Kakuzu. When the Jashinist went to ask what the hell that was all about, the miser motioned toward Sasori, who was watching them intently. "Oh, it's the brat. Want to have another go with my scythe? That was funny as hell last time."

"We don't have time to waste, Hidan," Kakuzu grumbled. "We should've left over an hour ago." He glanced at Sasori, who was still staring. "What the hell are you looking at?"

"Why are your eyes like that? Did you get sand in them? Is that why you're always grumpy?" There were three seconds of silence before Hidan's burst into laughter. Kakuzu growled loudly, swiftly reaching forward and grabbing Sasori by the front of his cloak, lifting him up to eye level.

"What did you say, you brat?!" Sasori, who had no idea he'd done anything wrong, put both hands on Kakuzu's arm to balance himself.

"I'm sorry! Put me down!"

"You have three seconds to give me a reason not to kill you right now!"

"Oh, come on, you old bastard," Hidan laughed, punching the ex-Waterfall shinobi's shoulder. "You know what the leader would do if you killed the little fucker."

With a grunt, Kakuzu dropped the child to the floor. Before Sasori could even push himself away, Deidara came into the living room, panting and wet and holding a towel around his waist. "What the hell's going on out here? I thought I told you to stay in the room, Sasori?"

"You better do something about him, and watch that brat closely," Kakuzu threatened, glaring at the blond. "Because the next time I see him alone, I'm stitching his mouth shut."

"Oh, quit being so dramatic, Kaku-"

"The threat applies to you, too, Hidan!" The miser turned and headed for the front door. "Now let's go before we waste any more time playing babysitter." He stormed out the door, Hidan giving the two remaining a smirk before following after his partner, slamming the door behind him.

Deidara closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before opening them again to glare at _his_ partner.

"I'm sorry," Sasori quickly offered.

"When I tell you to do something, it's for a good reason!" Deidara exclaimed, running a hand through his soapy damp hair. "Why'd you have to bug Kakuzu, of all people? Hm."

"I didn't even do anything!" Sasori yelled back, crossing his arms. "He was just being a jerk."

The blond pinched the bridge of his nose, groaning. "Ok, whatever. Look, just get back to the room and _stay there,_ at least until I'm done showering, hm. Can you do that?"

"Why am I in trouble? I said I didn't do anything!" Sasori yelled, surprising Deidara. When he didn't answer, the red head pushed past the clay user, running to their room and slamming the door behind him. Deidara heard him kick at the wall a few times.

"Hey, knock it off, hm!" There was a final kick and then he heard muffled sobs.

"Kids, huh?" Deidara sighed, ignoring Kisame as the shark-nin walked into the living room.

"I had no idea a six-year-old could have such violent mood swings, hm." The blond tightened the hold on his towel before moving past Kisame to go continue his shower. He finished rinsing the shampoo out of his hair and shut the water off, redressing himself and wondering what he was going to do with Sasori. He figured he was only acting out because he was bored, but there really wasn't much they could do inside. The base was for housing a bunch of S-ranked criminals – it was no place for a child. But orders were orders, and with Pein letting Deidara off the hook so easily, the blond was going to do his best to follow them.

He cautiously opened the bedroom door a crack, expecting Sasori to come out of the shadows and attack him. When that didn't happen, he opened the door fully, stepping inside the dark room and flipping on a light. Sasori lay sleeping on the floor, curled up in a ball. Deidara felt a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He walked over and gently picked the red head up before laying him down on the bed. Sasori stirred a bit, opening his eyes. "'M sorry, Deidara."

"It's okay, don't worry about it. Kakuzu's just a grouch, hm." He sat down on the bed to better tuck the child in. "Listen, I know that all these new rules don't seem important-"

"But I have to follow them, I know." Sasori sighed, turning over to face the wall.

"Yeah," Deidara said lamely. "I know you get bored, but don't worry, we'll figure out something fun to do. Maybe after you wake up again, you can write your grandmother and your parents a letter. I'm sure they'd like to know how you're doing."

Sasori nodded slowly, already falling asleep again. "Yeah…that'd be fun."

After he was sure he was completely out, Deidara stood up, leaving the room and closing the door behind him. He went into the living room and flopped onto the couch across from Kisame's. "I'm never having kids."

The blue-skinned man grinned, chuckling a bit. "It _would_ be a bit difficult, wouldn't it? Trying to find time between family and assassination jobs?" he joked.

Deidara couldn't help but laugh a little. "Yeah, for sure, hm." He put his hands behind his head, thinking. "I guess I never really pictured myself living past my twenties, anyway."

"Oh? Do you have such little faith in yourself as a shinobi that you're so sure you'll die young?" Kisame smirked.

"Of course not." Deidara shook his head, sitting up. "If I ever die, it's going to be from my own, super ultimate art." He could see Kisame tuning him out, as everyone usually did when he spoke of his art.

"Since when is blowing yourself up considered art? What's the point, then, if you're gone? It seems like a bit of a waste."

"That's exactly what Sasori would say, my ma-" Deidara caught himself. "Eh, I mean that's the whole point of art. Art is fleeting, just like life. That's what I've never understood about Sasori, or those bastards Hidan and Kakuzu…even Orochimaru. Why would you want to live forever? There's nothing to be gained from it. Life is meant to be short, that's the beauty of it. If I were die before I hit twenty, I'd be more than okay with that, as long as it was by my own art, of course."

"Now I can see why you get on Sasori's nerves," Kisame chuckled. "But to each his own, I suppose."


	6. Itachi's Break

**Hi folks! Sorry for the delay in updating. I finally got a job at the hospital I wanted to work at (I'm a phlebotomist) and it's nightshift (2am-1030am) so I've been busy trying to get my sleeping schedule on some form of a decent track. So I haven't had a lot of time to write, seeing as now for some reason I can only sleep up to 5 hours at a time so I'm now sleeping twice a day. But I'll be back to my regular updating once I get all the kinks worked out. Until then, enjoy some cute Itachi and Sasori moments. Sorry for the short chapter as well!**

Itachi closed his eyes. He couldn't focus on the characters in front of him anymore, they were blurry and seemed to be moving; plus, the back of his head was pounding from the eyestrain. He sat back, sighing. This was almost as bad as using the Mangekyou. It also didn't help he'd been tasked with this immediately following a mission where he'd been forced to use his Sharingan. The strain on his eyes was really starting to take a toll.

"Itachi?" He'd already felt Kisame's immense chakra come near before he heard his voice. He didn't bother opening his eyes, keeping his back to his partner.

"Hey, Kisame."

The taller man entered the room, coming to look over the Uchiha's shoulder at the pile of scrolls in front of him. "I brought some tea." He set the cup down and Itachi opened an eye. "How's the search going?"

"It's going well. I think I have an idea on how to undo the jutsu, but I still have some more uncovering to do." He picked up the mug and took a sip from it, finally turning to look at his companion, nodding his appreciation. "It shouldn't take more than a week."

"Aw, what a shame, I'm going to miss the big event." Kisame smirked. "I'm leaving later tonight to the Mist. I'll probably be gone around two weeks, maybe more."

"What a shame." Itachi let the ghost of a smile creep onto his face before taking another sip of tea.

"You shouldn't strain your eyes so much, Itachi. You don't want to ruin them too soon." With a final smirk, the more muscular of the two turned and walked out the door. Itachi closed his eyes again, finishing the rest of the tea in a few swallows before pushing away from his desk. He really _did_ need to take a break, at least until he could see clearly again. Konan had already been by to tell him that Pein did not expected him to work continuously on the scroll. Kisame's concern had given him the final push to quit for a bit.

He ventured out into the living room, noticing how quiet and peaceful it seemed. He'd been stuck inside his room for far too long. With a content sigh, he sat down on one of the couches, leaning his head back.

"Oh, look, you're alive after all, hm," Deidara teased as he walked through the room on his way to the kitchen. "I'm not trying to sound like a broken record here, so I won't ask how the work's coming along. But…can you give me a time-"

"Maybe a week or so," Itachi interrupted, massaging his temples in an attempt to alleviate the pain coming from his eyes. "How's Sasori?"

Deidara studied the Sharingan-user, noticing how weary he was. "He's faring a lot better than you, it seems. He's down for a nap right now. I'm taking a break while I can. Hm."

Remembering some details he'd uncovered from the scroll, Itachi asked, "Has he talked about any childhood memories? It's no secret his parents were killed when he was young, but has he talked about anything other than that?"

"Well, actually, he still thinks his parents are alive," Deidara answered slowly. "He won't stop talking about them, he thinks they're still away on a mission, hm...why?"

Itachi ignored him as he processed this information. After a while, he stood up, determined to go back and continue analyzing the scroll. However, the sudden movement only gave him another pounding headache that had him collapsing back on the couch, clutching his head in pain.

"You Uchiha sure are stubborn, why don't you take it easy, hm?" Deidara smirked. "Whatever epiphany you've just had can wait until after you've recuperated a bit. We don't need another member out of commission."

Instead of arguing with the blond, Itachi decided, mostly because of how much pain he was in, that he would let Deidara's snide remarks go. He leaned his head back again, trying not to let the damned bomber see him so affected by a simple migraine.

The blond disappeared into the kitchen to make something to eat, still never really liking to be around Itachi for even short periods of time. He settled on making ramen and ate it slowly at the kitchen table, enjoying his free time while he could. It was disappointing that he couldn't take Sasori outside anymore – the whole reason he even performed the jutsu in the first place was for the impatient puppet to have some fun for once.

Ah, well. He'd find some other way to entertain the red head until they reversed the jutsu. Now that Itachi had a date set, Deidara didn't feel as stressed about the whole situation.

Sasori woke up shortly after Deidara finished eating, rubbing his eyes as he stumbled into the kitchen. The blond made him a bowl of ramen and set it in front of the groggy child. "Have a nice nap?"

Sasori nodded, perking up a bit at the sight of the ramen. "Yeah." He ate the soup noisily, spilling half of the broth onto his cloak by the time he'd finished eating. "I made a mess."

"Yeah you did, hm." Deidara pulled the cloak off the child, using it to soak up the ramen that the kid had also spilled on the table. Sasori giggled as he watched, swinging his legs. "What's so funny, huh?"

"My shirt's not a rag, silly." The red head hopped out of his chair and did a quick circle around Deidara before running into the living room. Deidara rolled his eyes, continuing his cleanup.

Sasori, upon seeing Itachi resting on the couch, climbed up onto it. "Are you sleeping?" he whispered, leaning in close to the raven's face.

"Just resting," Itachi half-whispered back, unmoving.

"Oh." Sasori sat back on the couch, thinking for a bit before leaning up against Itachi's side. "I want to rest, too. Even though I just took a nap."

"Okay." Itachi yawned.

The red head snuggled up against him. "When we're done with our resting, will you play a game with me?" Itachi opened an eye, looking down at the child. "Pleeease?"

Oh, what the hell. "Sure, why not?"

"Yay! We can-"

"But we have to finish resting first."

"Okay, okay," Sasori said quickly, closing his eyes. He heard Deidara come into the room.

"Sasori, I'm washing your cloak in the sink-"

"Shh! Deidara, can't you see we're trying to rest here?" The former puppet opened his eyes and pointed menacingly at his partner. "You have to be quiet."

Deidara held his hands up in mock surrender. "Oh, of course, hm. I'll just leave you to rest then." Whatever kept the brat busy.

"Good." Sasori pretended to rest for about five minutes before he became bored. "Itachi, are you ready to play now?"

Itachi took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. "Sure." He opened his eyes and sat forward, feeling his headache slowly waning. He was caught a little by surprise when Sasori jumped on his back.

"What do you want to play first? Do you know of any fun games to play?"

"Well, not off the top of my head, no."

"Hmm….well…" Sasori thought for a while, suddenly brightening. "I have one."

"Okay, let's have it-"

"You're it!" Sasori tapped the Uchiha's arm before running away laughing. Itachi sighed; he'd been thinking of playing a more quiet game. Oh well. He stood up off the couch, walking at a leisurely pace down the hall the kid had ran down. It didn't take long for Itachi to find him – Sasori giggled nonstop.

The raven snuck up behind Sasori, his skills as a shinobi really coming in handy. He placed his palm onto the kid's shoulder, effectively startling him. "You're it."

Sasori was over his shock in a second, tagging Itachi back immediately before taking off running again. "You're it!"

"What foul play," Itachi muttered before following the child, once again sneaking up behind him and tagging him. The raven was expecting the red head's next move, and quickly dodged it by jumping back. Sasori only continued running forward, and Itachi made a quick decision to move to the side before skirting around the boy. He smirked in victory as he ran back to the living room, using the couch as a sort of barrier between him and Sasori.

Naturally the child climbed up onto the couch rather than go around, as Itachi had expected. "No standing on the furniture!" the Uchiha yelled as a last ditch effort to get away, unable to help the wide smile forming on his face as Sasori lunged for him, giggling. Rather than evade the attack, Itachi caught the child in both arms, falling flat on the ground in spite of bracing himself. Sasori laughed out loud, bouncing on the Akatsuki member's chest.

"I win! I win!" He jumped into a standing position so Itachi could sit up.

"So you did," Itachi smiled, feeling somewhat good for the first time in a long time. "Do you want to play something different now?"

"Sure! What is there to play?"

Itachi led him to his room, sitting the boy down on the floor while he dug through the drawers of his side table until he finally found what he was looking for: A stack of playing cards. He spent the next hour teaching the child some of the basic card games and playing. Sasori chattered on about anything and everything as they played, and Itachi found that it was indeed true that the child still thought his parents were alive. He talked a lot about his "granny Chiyo" as well, but Itachi couldn't remember for the life of him ever hearing anything about the old woman before. He could only assume that perhaps Sasori had been raised by his grandmother after the death of his parents. He'd have to look into it later.

After a while, Sasori grew bored of the cards and complained of hunger. The pile of scrolls on Itachi's desk were glaring at him to continue his work, so he sent Sasori away to find Deidara and have the other Akatsuki member make something to eat. The child was more than willing to have an excuse to bug the blond, and skipped away merrily.

Headache completely gone, Itachi picked himself up off the floor, placing the stack of cards on his side table before sitting at the desk, ready to get back to business.


	7. Idiots Will Be Idiots

Pein stood in the meeting room, arms crossed as he stared at the child sitting on the table in his underwear. Sasori was swinging his legs and looking curiously at the orange-haired shinobi.

"I'm not too familiar with Sasori's original form to begin with, but it doesn't seem like the jutsu has changed him at all physically, besides turning him into a normal human child," Pein mumbled quietly to Konan, who stood close. "I was hoping there would at least be an indication of the jutsu, like a mark or something on his body. It could've helped with finding a-"

"Can I touch those things on your face?" Sasori interrupted, cocking his head to the side as if he were a puppy.

"Come again?" Pein asked, perplexed at the request. Konan chuckled behind him.

"He means your chakra rods, Pein."

"When did you get them? Did they hurt? How do you sleep? Do you take them out when you go night-night?"

"Oh, don't worry about them. We're here to talk about _you_." Pein dropped his arms to his side, taking a step closer to the boy. "Tell me what you remember before you…came here?"

Sasori huffed, growing increasingly bored. He'd been in this room for too long now, just sitting there while this strange man looked him over. "I was with my granny and then…I think I fell asleep, and then I woke up here. Granny Chiyo didn't even tell me nothing about coming to stay here! And she won't answer my letters that Deidara sent for me."

"Lady Chiyo? I see," Pein nodded. He turned to Konan and spoke quietly so the red head couldn't hear him. "Will you have one of Sasori's subordinates meet with me later to give me information on Chiyo? She's the one who sealed the One-tail into its current jinchuriki, but that's all I know about her, besides her being an expert on posions as well as a master puppeteer. Maybe there's a something we can learn from studying her, especially with what Itachi's already told us about the jutsu."

"Yes, Pein."

He turned back to Sasori, immediately leaning back as a tiny hand was thrust in his direction. "Pleeease, let me touch them?"

"Oh, alright, _fine_." He kneeled down and sighed as Sasori gingerly ran his hands over the rods.

"Do they hurt when I touch them?"

"No, they don't hurt at all. Now, tell me more about your parents."

Sasori smiled at the mention of his parents. "Oh, they're away on a mission right now, which is why I was staying with Granny Chiyo. But then _she_ had to leave, so that's why I'm here with Uncle Deidara."

"Uncle…?" Pein shook his head. "How long have your parents been gone?"

"A few months, I think. I really hate waiting for them to come home..." Sasori dropped his hands down in his lap, suddenly bursting into tears. Pein, once over the initial shock, put an arm around the crying child in an attempt to comfort him. Konan also stepped forward, hopping to sit on the table next to the boy.

"Hey, now, it's alright," she cooed. "They'll be back before you know it and you'll be able to go home. You just have to be a little patient."

Sasori continued to cry, burying his face in her cloak. Pein eased his way out of the awkward hug, standing up and crossing the room. "I'll go find Deidara," he mouthed. Konan nodded, hugging Sasori close.

The carrot top didn't have to go very far; Deidara was already outside the door, looking as if he were trying to hide the fact that he was eavesdropping. Rather than waste time scolding Deidara about it, Pein invited the artist into the room. Deidara immediately went to Sasori, kneeling down in front of him and offering a smile. "Hey, now, what's with all the waterworks?"

Upon hearing his caretaker's voice, Sasori pulled away from Konan and held his arms out in front of him so Deidara could pick him up.

"Missing your family again, hm?" Deidara sighed. "You have to be more patient. They won't be too long. Just think of this as a vacation, hm."

"Well, it's not a very fun one," Sasori muttered. "I'm not even allowed to play outside."

"That's just a precaution to keep you safe," Pein interjected. "You're a very valuable member…uhm, guest in this house. Your grandmother trusted us to watch you and to make sure no harm comes to you."

"And besides, who needs to go outside to have fun?" Deidara forced himself to sound enthusiastic. To be honest, he was going absolutely stir-crazy. He'd do anything to go outside – hell, if we were assigned to do a mission with _Hidan_ , he'd have no complaints. The air inside the house was becoming too stuffy for him.

Sasori wasn't faring much better. The kid looked paler than his puppet form did. He definitely needed a little sun.

"Hey," he whispered into Sasori's ear, making it appear that he was merely cooing something comforting to him. "I have an idea of how we can still blow shit up while staying inside, hm."

Sasori instantly perked up, pulling away from the terrorist to look him in the eyes. "R-really?"

"Of course," Deidara answered, pulling him back to whisper in his ear again. "Don't tell Pein or Konan, though. It's a secret, hm."

"Oh, okay," Sasori whispered back, and Deidara set him down before dragging himself up off the floor. He gave a nod at the Akatsuki leader, who raised an eyebrow in question until he realized he didn't care what the blond had said to calm Sasori down – as long as the kid wasn't crying anymore.

"Konan will be back in two days to get more intel from Itachi and to relay what we've found out about Lady Chiyo. From the way things are looking, we should be able to reverse it within four days."

"Yes, Leader, hm." Deidara nodded once more and after Pein dismissed him, he turned and left with Sasori in tow. He led the doe-eyed boy back to their room, closing and locking the door behind him before moving to the window and forcing it open. Curious, Sasori joined him at the window pane, standing on his toes to peek out. Instantly he figured out what Deidara was meaning to do and grinned widely.

"You're gonna throw your clay outside?"

"Yep! Hm." Deidara flashed a smile before reaching into his clay pouches and using both hands to make two small birds. He held out one to Sasori, who took it eagerly and went to throw it out the window. "Ah, ah, ah!" Deidara stopped him, giving the kid a smirk. "Before you throw it, repeat after me: Art is an explosion, hm!"

Sasori grimaced, but his desire to throw the bird was bigger than his rebelliousness, so he finally nodded and smiled back toward the window before shouting, "Art is an explosion, hm!" and tossing the bird as far as he could. Deidara made a face at the last word but sent his bird flying out the window to join Sasori's. A second later he made a hand sign and watched in awe as artwork appeared in the sky before him, grinning as pieces of broken clay hit the side of the base. He heard Itachi sigh loudly from somewhere in the house.

"That was awesome! Do it again!" Sasori pleaded, jumping up and down.

"How could I say no to that?" Deidara chuckled, already forming more clay pieces in his palms' mouths. They continued for another half hour, deciding to call it quits when they heard Itachi's footsteps pacing down the hallway. Not wanting the Uchiha to break down his door (Itachi had a freakishly strong kick), Deidara declared loudly that it was time to make something to eat. Sasori didn't complain.

Deidara waited until heard the raven retreat back to his room before daring to unlock the door and step outside. He made the only thing they had in the house – ramen – and two sat in the living room to eat it, Sasori chattering nonstop about the explosions as if Deidara hadn't been right there with him. The redhead ended up getting to carried away and spilt his broth all over his lap. The bomber shrugged it off; the kid needed a bath anyway, and he hadn't gotten any of the soup on the couch, so Kakuzu wouldn't tear his head off when he returned.

"Alright, let's get you in the bath, brat. Your hair's starting to look like a wildfire, and you've had that same smudge on your shoulder for the last two days." Sasori smiled sheepishly before taking his bowl to the kitchen and following Deidara to the bathroom. The blond ran a warm bath, deciding to let Sasori use _his_ hair products. He couldn't remember ever brushing the child's hair, and it already looked like a rat nest, so combing through it was going to be a nightmare.

It only took ten minutes to clean the child, but the bath lasted an hour and a half simply because Sasori refused to get out until he'd had adequate time to play. No skin off Deidara's back, it only gave him time to think about how he'd actually gotten Sasori, Mr. Eternal, to say that art was indeed an explosion. It didn't exactly count because his partner wasn't in his right state of mind (or body), but it was enough for Deidara.

Brushing Sasori's hair was nothing less than hell. He squirmed and yelped the entire time, getting angry with Deidara as if it was his fault the brat hadn't took a comb to his hair in the last five days. "Stop struggling, hm! I'm surprised you don't have lice, your hair's so knotty."

Sasori paused, giggling. "Hair can't be naughty, silly. It's just hair." Deidara rolled his eyes, dragging the brush through the crimson locks once more.

"Maybe the hair can't, but the person who _owns_ it sure can be, hm," he muttered, ignoring Sasori's protests. Finally, finally, Deidara was able to run a comb through the kid's hair without the teeth breaking, so he released Sasori, who acted like he'd been imprisoned. "Alright, let's get some sleep. Maybe we can make more explosive art tomorrow, if Itachi decides not to be an ass again."

Sasori laughed behind his hands, nodding and skipping behind Deidara to their room. Having had a busy day, he was out like a light less than ten minutes later.

Meanwhile, Itachi had just finished his third cup of tea, setting the cup down and rubbing his hands on his thighs to bring feeling back into them. He'd been sitting for too long, but he couldn't stop now, not when he was _so_ close. Everything was starting to click together, Orochimaru's cryptic writing was becoming as easy to read as a children's book.

He stretched his arms above him, leaning backward over the chair in an attempt to crack his back. After a few good pops he sat forward again, resting his arms on the desk and mulling over the new information he'd gathered. Without Kisame around to nag him about taking it easy, he'd been able to study the scroll all day. He was sure he'd have the answer to this mess by tomorrow night. He was eager for this mission to be over so he could return back to the field, where he didn't have to strain his eyes nearly as much as he'd been having to the last couple days.

However, he found that he was starting to actually enjoy having this child version of Sasori around. While Itachi and Sasori were usually civil toward each other, being comrades in the Akatsuki and all, interacting with this younger, more open Sasori was a breath of fresh air. It also gave Itachi a warm feeling whenever the child spoke to him, looking up to him as if he were his older brother or something. It brought back fond memories of Sasuke.

No matter how much he berated that fool Deidara about casting such an inconvenient jutsu, Itachi couldn't help that he secretly enjoyed it. It gave him a chance to escape his cursed life, if only for a little while, and let him sort of relive the days where all he was was simply an older brother, whose biggest concerns were making his father proud and setting a good example for his younger sibling.

He sighed. Those days were long gone. How naïve and childish he'd been, thinking his life was going to have any shroud of normalcy. And now ironically, he was going to have to watch the free-spirit that was Sasori, turn once again into a hurt and distrusting soul. Forced to watch this kind-hearted child's empathy dissolve into apathy.

Itachi wondered if Sasori would remember this week. The probability was low, but even if subconsciously these memories stayed in the depths of his mind, what if it changed the puppet? Even just slightly?

Itachi pushed himself away from the desk, shaking his head. What did he care, anyway? He hadn't joined the Akatsuki to psychoanalyze its members. What difference would it make if Sasori changed? It would have impact to Itachi whatsoever, except if for whatever reason, the jutsu had changed Sasori enough to want to leave the Akatsuki, and Itachi was tasked with the job of killing him.

Which be upsetting if only because, other than his impatience and weird obsession with turning corpses into works of art, Sasori was one of the few members Itachi could actually have a decent conversation with, or at least sit together in comfortable silence. If Sasori were to ever be replaced, the new member would probably not have the same reserved nature. Itachi shuddered at the possibility of having a new member join who was even more annoying than _Hidan_.

Itachi stood, deciding to go to the kitchen to make himself a fourth cup of tea, and then to take a short rest in the living room, maybe read a book. Something to clear his mind and to make him relax for a bit before he had to start over again.

This plan was quickly ruined, however. He realized that when he heard the unmistakable complaining voice of Hidan approaching the base, and then the deeper, gruffer voice of Kakuzu. The two never came back silently, even removing the Jashinist's voicebox (as Kakuzu had done once) didn't seem to stop the zealot from making noise.

Itachi took a sip of his tea and watched the front door slam open, and irritated but now silent Kakuzu storming inside, suitcase in hand. From the looks of it, he'd gotten a hefty sum from some bounty, so Itachi came to the conclusion that Hidan was just being an ass again.

And he was right. Hidan strutted into the living room, a proud look on his face from thoroughly irritating his partner. Kakuzu disappeared into his room, most likely to count his money and calm himself down. The silver-haired man flopped down onto one of the couches, scythe dropping with a dull thud next to him. Still lying down, he unzipped his worn cloak, exposing his chest, which showed that he had recently sent a sacrifice to Jashin. "Did you turn Sasori back into a doll yet?"

Itachi took a long sip of his tea before shaking his head, not caring that Hidan couldn't see him from his position on the couch. "No," he grunted when he heard Hidan start to repeat the question. "He'll be back to his old self in two days, at the latest."

"Man, I sure hope he remembers everything. It'd be pretty fucking funny to see him kill Deidara for this." Hidan chuckled to himself and Itachi frowned at the thought. He'd shown Sasori his soft side; if the puppet knew that he wasn't all cold and emotionless, it could hurt his reputation in the Akatsuki, if Sasori told anyone, that is. Itachi relaxed, knowing that Sasori wouldn't have any reason or want to share that he had played a card game with the Uchiha.

As Hidan had pointed out, he would most likely be completely infuriated with Deidara, and he wondered if even Pein would be able to stop Sasori's wrath. While Pein didn't approve of violence between comrades, he also wasn't pleased with the fact that Deidara had performed an incapacitating jutsu on the shortest member.

Pein would most likely pretend to look the other way while Sasori got his revenge, as long as Deidara wasn't killed, of course.

"You gotta let me be there when you reverse the jutsu. I wanna see the look on the puppetfucker's face when he wakes up and realizes what happened."

"No," Itachi deadpanned. "We're going to give him his privacy. I don't even want to be there when he turns back; as it is he already dislikes being seen outside Hiruko, so the fewer people in the room-"

"Fuck, that's no fun. You can't let a guy live a little?" Hidan drawled. "A little humiliation would probably do the marionette some good. Kick him down a few pegs, you know? Get him off that golden pedestal he sits on."

"If you don't mind being turned into a human-puppet, then you can be my guest, Hidan."

That got the zealot to shut up, probably because if Hidan were controlled by Sasori, he couldn't sacrifice to Jashin, and Itachi smirked a little, hiding it behind his cup. He took another sip.

It naturally _would_ be chaotic around the base when Sasori was reverted back to normal, but if they could limit how much more embarrassment the red head felt when he came back, it wouldn't be too crazy. Maybe he'd ask Pein to send Hidan out on some errand that day, at least until they were done reversing the jutsu. Then if Hidan wanted to be a blockhead and mock Sasori, he could take the consequences that came along with it without anyone else feeling like they had to do something about it.

There was no stopping an idiot, after all.

 **This was an early birthday present to myself (it's tomorrow, I'll be 22) and to all of you who continue to read and support this little fic. Thanks!**


	8. Itachi's (Incomplete) Theory

By now, Sasori was used to waking up before Deidara. Usually, he'd poke the blond until he groaned and groggily sat up, and then Sasori would smile and ask for food repeatedly while Deidara got dressed. Today he decided that he would let his uncle sleep in a while. Konan had brought over food that Sasori could just grab and eat without having to make Deidara cook it, so he climbed over his bed mate and got out of bed.

He wandered into the kitchen and noticed Hidan sitting at the table. The older man smirked upon seeing Sasori. "Hey, kid."

"Good morning, Hidan." He walked to the pantry and pulled out one of the snacks, opening it. He turned toward the table and saw that Hidan was holding out a kunai.

"Here, I got you something to play with. It must be pretty boring having to entertain yourself." Hidan's smile widened as the child stared curiously at the knife. "Go on, take it. You know, one of Deidara's favorite games is dodging these things when you throw them at him."

"Really?" Sasori crossed the kitchen and stood next to Hidan, looking at the weapon but not yet taking it. "Is it safe?"

"As long as you don't trip and fall onto it," Hidan drawled, thrusting the kunai further toward Sasori. "Come on, it's perfectly fine."

"Well…okay." Sasori reached out for the weapon but gasped as suddenly it was kicked out of Hidan's hand. The Jashinist drew his arm back in shock, holding it to his chest as the kunai clattered to the ground.

Itachi moved in between the two, bending down and grabbing the weapon. Hidan immediately stood up, glaring at the Uchiha. "What's your fuckin' problem, Itachi?"

Without any warning, the kunai was thrown, barely missing Hidan's head and sticking into the wall behind him. Itachi flashed his Sharingan in warning. "Pein's orders were to keep him safe and unharmed."

Hidan scowled. While there wasn't any pain Itachi could inflict on him that he hadn't felt before, the Jashinist despised having the Sharingan used on him. He growled, boldly staring the Uchiha in the eyes for a few seconds before looking away and shoving past him and out of the kitchen. Itachi watched him go before turning to Sasori, who was staring up at him in both fascination and fear.

"Don't take anything Hidan offers you. You've already nearly been decapitated fooling around with his scythe," Itachi scolded lightly, flicking some of Sasori's hair out of his face before walking to the stove to make some tea.

Sasori nodded, still recovering from the shock. After a few seconds, he grinned and bounded toward the Uchiha, crashing into him and hugging him around the legs. "That was so cool!"

"You almost gouging your eyes out is cool?" Itachi asked, trying to sound stern but Sasori didn't miss the smile on his face. He giggled, releasing the raven.

"Why's there a kunai in the wall?" Sasori turned toward Deidara as the blond stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

"Finally you're awake!" The red head ran toward Deidara, making him sit at the table so he could tell him how cool Itachi was. The blond listened, rolling his eyes every couple seconds. Even though Itachi's back was to him, he knew that the raven was smirking as Sasori blabbered on about the incident that had happened just moment ago.

What should have been a thirty-second story was finished five agonizingly long minutes later, and Deidara stood up and stretched before grabbing one of Sasori's snacks and munching on it as he glared at Itachi's back. His eyes shifted to the entryway as Kakuzu entered the kitchen.

Before the miser got three steps into the room, he spotted the kunai sticking in the wall. "Why the hell is that there?" he growled, immediately glaring at Deidara. The blond held his hands up in defense, scowling.

"Hey, why do you _always_ assume it's me?!"

Itachi turned away from the stove, a cup of tea in his hands. "I apologize, it was me. I was trying to get a point across to Hidan."

Kakuzu's glare shifted to Itachi, but he didn't hold any real malice in it. "I should've known that idiot Hidan had something to do with it." He plucked the weapon out of the wall, pocketing it to use on his partner later.

"You should have seen how cool It-"

"Finish eating already," Deidara interrupted, grabbing Sasori's arm and making him sit down. "I'll show you something _really_ cool after you're finished, hm."

Sasori grinned. "More explosions?"

" _More_?" Kakuzu questioned; Deidara chuckled nervously.

'Kids say the darnedest things, don't they?"

After the long and awkward wait for Sasori to finish eating, Deidara led him out of the kitchen and back into his room. "We can't do any explosions today since that moneygrubber's here, but I have something else you can do, hm."

Deidara opened his bedroom window and climbed out of it, motioning for Sasori to do the same. "Are we sneaking out?" Sasori whispered.

"No, hm. We're sneaking _in_." He smirked, walking to Sasori's bedroom window. The seal Konan had used on the puppet's door was still there, and Deidara hadn't been able to release it. He had discovered, however, that she had left the window intact, and he pulled it open, picking up Sasori and helping him through it before climbing in himself.

He clicked on a light and sighed at the familiar sight of puppet's lining the shelves in the room. He saw Hiruko in the corner the same time Sasori did, and they both walked toward the puppet, Sasori staring in awe.

"Since we can't make explosions today, I thought I'd let you play with the puppets again, hm," Deidara explained, kneeling down next to the huge puppet and placing a hand on the side of it, feeling around. He'd watched Sasori open the puppet countless times, he was sure he could do the same. "But you can't tell anyone I let you do this, okay?"

"I promise."

"Good, hm." Deidara bit his tongue as he continued sliding his hand across the puppet before finally finding what he was looking for. He fumbled with the latch for a bit and smiled as he heard a click. Feeling proud, he opened Hiruko, revealing the inside compartment Sasori usually inhabited.

"Whoa," Sasori said in awe, stepping inside and sitting down. Deidara couldn't help but laugh at the sight. His partner always did look smaller while sitting inside Hiruko, but this was ridiculous. "How do you work this thing?"

Deidara was caught off guard by the question, as he realized that Sasori must not yet know how to make chakra strings. "Oh, well, you have to be a puppet master to control this one. Hm."

"Oh, like Granny Chiyo," Sasori nodded. "And like…" He suddenly went silent, deep in thought.

"Sasori?" Deidara put a hand on the child's shoulder. "You okay? Are you remembering something?"

The redhead frowned, his brows furrowing. "I…there was a weird…memory, but then it passed." His face relaxed and he shrugged, turning to look at Deidara. "I can't remember it now."

"Oh, hm." How odd. Could it be that Sasori was remembering that he was also a puppet master? If that was the case, this could be a major clue about how to reverse the jutsu. "Hey, Sasori, can you play in here quietly for a bit while I go talk to Itachi?"

"Yeah, of course," the red head answered, happy that Deidara trusted him enough to leave him alone.

"Don't touch anything that looks like it could be dangerous, and if you see any purple liquid, leave it alone, hm."

"Okay, I promise."

Deidara ruffled his hair before jumping out the window and back into his own. He left his bedroom and went into the kitchen, sighing when he saw that Itachi wasn't there. He walked back down the hall and knocked at the Uchiha's door.

His ears caught the sound of a faint gasp, and then Itachi's footsteps crossed the room and the door opened. "Were you sleeping?"

"What do you want?" Itachi crossed his arms over his bare chest.

"I need you to tell me everything you've learned about the jutsu so far. Sasori was acting weird just now, hm."

Itachi's eyes softened and he nodded, stepping away from the door to allow Deidara to enter. The room was dim, confirming Deidara's suspicions of the raven having been asleep. He must have stayed up all night working. "How was he acting?" Itachi asked, slipping on a shirt and pulling his hair into a ponytail.

"He looked like he was remembering who he was."

Itachi's eyes widened slightly. "Really? That's good news." He moved to his desk and picked up the scroll. "I still haven't gotten everything pieced together, but from what I can tell so far, he isn't going to be returned back to normal until he's remembered something important from when he was that age, something that changed his life."

Deidara hummed. "You mean his parents."

"Yes." Itachi lowered his eyes. "But like I said, I haven't finished decoding it completely, so that's only a theory. I want to wait until I completely understand before we do anything drastic like that."

"Yeah, I getcha, hm." Deidara bit his lip. The only way they were going to get Sasori to remember his parents' deaths would be to tell him, and he certainly wasn't looking forward to having to do that. He hoped that Itachi's theory was wrong, but as much as Deidara hated to admit it, the raven's theories usually proved to be correct. "So when will you have a concrete answer?"

Itachi frowned. "Well, even when I finish analyzing it, all of the reversals I come up with are just educated guesses. Orochimaru's a crafty bastard, he doesn't make anything clear or easy. There are no guarantees that there even _is_ a way to reverse this." He took a deep breath. "Still, everything's pointing toward this theory."

"Yeah, okay, hm." Deidara furrowed his brows. It wasn't like Itachi to talk this much. "So, again, how long until you're finished? Quit beating around the bush."

The Uchiha flashed the blond a glare before looking away almost sheepishly. "I was up all night studying the scroll. I need to rest my eyes a bit before I continue-"

"Oh, hm." Deidara rolled his eyes. "You need to sleep first, you could've just told me that."

Itachi cleared his throat. "I should be finished late tonight."

"With your nap?!"

"With the release for the jutsu!" Itachi growled. It was uncharacteristic of him to have outbursts like that, but he'd barely slept at all the past week, and it was starting to get to him. Not that he usually slept all that well anyway, but this whole situation was draining him. He made a mental note to scare Deidara with the Sharingan after this was all over and he was well rested.

"Alright, alright, I'll leave you to your _work_ ," Deidara smirked, slipping out the door before Itachi could yell at him again. He snuck back into Sasori's room, chuckling when he found that the kid was still entranced by Hiruko. "I know puppets are…cool and everything, but you still like Uncle Dei's explosions, yeah?"

"Well, yeah," Sasori smiled, tracing along the insides of Hiruko with his small fingers. "But they don't last a long time. And they're loud. And then when they're gone, they're gone. You can't look at them forever. You can't take an explosion and bring it into the house and stare at it or play with it for hours."

"That's why they're so great, hm!" Deidara ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. "What's the point of having something for that long, anyway? It would get boring after a while, don't you think?"

"…Maybe." Sasori shrugged, climbing out of Hiruko. "Or maybe not." He playfully stuck his tongue out at Deidara and the blond returned the favor with the palms of both his hands, making Sasori laugh almost hysterically.

Deidara rolled his eyes, watching the little red head curl up inside Hiruko. "Hey, does anything about that puppet seem…familiar?"

"Umm…no?" Sasori cocked his head a bit.

"Nothing at all? Think hard, hm." The child closed his eyes and sat there deep in thought for a while. Deidara didn't see any expressions on his face that would indicate any familiarity, and a moment later Sasori confirmed it.

"Nope. I've never seen this thing ever."

"Okay…what if you saw that the third Kazekage had been turned into a puppet?"

Sasori furrowed his brows. "Why would someone make a puppet of him?"

"Not _of_ him. _Out_ of him. Like they killed him and made him into a puppet? Hm."

There was a long silence while Sasori pondered this, before he shrugged. "No one can do that, silly. I don't think puppets work like that."

"What if someone found out they _could_ work like that?" Deidara pressed, hoping to see some sort of reaction from his partner. A confused, almost-irritated look formed on the child's face.

"Well, they can't!" Sasori huffed. "And even if it did work like that, they'd have to kill the Kazekage, and no one can kill him. He's the strongest guy in the world!"

"In the world, huh?"

"Yes!"

"Alright, alright, you got me. But what about if someone made puppets of their parents?" Deidara continued. Maybe if he just reminded Sasori just _enough_ , it would trigger something and reverse the jutsu without him actually having to break the news that his parents were dead and had been dead for a long time. "Like if maybe they were lonely-"

"Just shut up," Sasori interrupted, a cross look on his face. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. You're being weird and creepy and you're making puppets seem bad." Deidara's eyebrows rose in slight shock at how suddenly Sasori's mood had darkened.

"Alright, I'm sorry. We won't talk about it anymore, okay? Hm."

Sasori nodded slowly. "Let's go play something else now."

"Okay, hm." He helped Sasori out the window and back into Deidara's own room. Sasori immediately left the room, telling the bomber that he was going to get a snack and that Deidara didn't need to come with him. Slightly offended, the blond only nodded before falling back onto his bed, breathing out in a huff. That had gone just _peachy_.

If Sasori became aggravated when Deidara was only entertaining the idea about human puppets, how was the kid going to react when – no, not when, _if_ – he had to tell him the truth about his parents and what had really happened? What if Sasori didn't even believe him? Could the jutsu even be reversed if Sasori still believed his parents to be alive? Deidara doubted it.

He would just have to break the news as if he were just hearing about it. Maybe he could scribble out a letter from Granny Chiyo explaining that his parents had fallen during their mission. But how cruel would that be? Having a child read from a note that the two people who cared about him most were suddenly gone?

Deidara sighed, putting his arms over his head. Who cared? As long as it got the point across, right? It's not as if Sasori would remember any of this when he returned back into his normal, creepy, human-puppet self. Right?

He sat up, shaking his head. He shouldn't even worry about it yet. After all, Itachi _did_ say he wasn't a hundred percent sure of the theory anyway. No need to stress about it when there was a chance that _that_ route wouldn't even need to be taken. He'd just need to be patient and wait until tonight.

But, man, he hated waiting.


	9. Sasori, My Man?

Itachi's theory was correct. He'd finally finished analyzing the scroll and putting all the pieces together late into the night – he even did it twice just to be sure – and it all led to the same thing: Sasori needed to be reminded of his traumatic experience he'd gone through as a child. It was rather cruel, even for Orochimaru.

The Uchiha had wasted no time in contacting their Leader. Pein, using his astral projection, listened as Itachi explained what they would have to do. Though he also found it to be a bit cruel, the Akatsuki leader was more relieved to finally have this whole situation over with and his members back in commission. He thanked Itachi for his work and decided that they would go over the plan more thoroughly in the morning before attempting anything.

Itachi agreed and waited for Pein's projection to fuzz away before turning to his bed, tired but not wanting to sleep. How could he? He didn't want to admit it, but he'd grown somewhat affectionate for this child, and now he'd be forced to watch the Sasori's care-free spirit crushed.

Just like Sasuke. He felt a pang of guilt hit his chest and he ran both his hands through his hair, sitting down on his bed. His mind went back to that night and all its horrific details. He couldn't erase from his memories the look on Sasuke's face when he'd first discovered their parents, and then when he found out it had all been Itachi's doing.

It had to be done, but there was no way he could escape the guilt from hurting his brother so badly. Well, there was one way, but he still needed to wait a few more years for that…

He must've stayed up all night lying in his bed thinking, and he was surprised when he heard a knock on his door, followed immediately after by the appearance of an impatient and excited Deidara. "Pein called a meeting this morning, hm. You finished it?" The sculptor frowned as he stepped closer. "You look like shit, you doing okay?"

Itachi turned his head away, reaching up with a hand to rub his face, frowning in embarrassment as he wiped away tears he hadn't known he'd cried. "It's the…strain on my eyes."

"Okay, hm. Well, Pein wants us in the meeting room in half an hour."

"Where's Sasori?" Itachi turned his head back toward the blond, glancing behind him to see if the little red head had followed him in.

Deidara chuckled. "Kakuzu's watching him until the meeting's over."

Itachi stood up from his bed, cracking his neck. "How did you get him to agree to do that?"

"Not my idea. Pein's orders, hm." Seeing that his assignment of informing the Uchiha of the meeting was completed, Deidara turned and left the room, deep in thought.

He could've _sworn_ Itachi had been crying, he hadn't missed the wetness on his cheeks. But then, the raven _had_ been using his eyes a lot lately. Deidara noticed that his own eyes got a little watery if he focused on his clay for too long. And he couldn't for the life of him think of anything that would make the heartless Uchiha cry. He was a murderer, after all; someone who had massacred his entire clan, save for his little brother, in one night, just to test his abilities. If he could do that without any emotion, there was probably nothing else that could break the Sharingan user.

Deidara shook his head. Who cared? The jutsu was finally going to be reversed, Sasori would go back to his boring puppet self, and life and missions would go on as usual.

He went to his room to grab his Akatsuki cloak, slipping it over his shoulders and zipping it up. It seemed out of place to go to meetings or to meet with the Leader without it, and he noticed all the other members seemed to feel the same way. Even Sasori always wore a cloak on his real body, on top of donning Hiruko with one. Deidara found it a little unnecessary, seeing as the puppet rarely came out of Hiruko, especially out on missions. In fact, the only time the other artist was out of his favorite puppet was when they were at the base, and even then he stayed inside the privacy of his bedroom – well, not that you could call Deidara barging in at least once a month private.

Deciding to follow one of the older Sasori's traits and not keep anyone waiting, Deidara walked down the hall and took a seat in the meeting room. Kakuzu's room was down the same hallway and wasn't far from the meeting area, and Deidara could faintly hear Sasori's high-pitched voice, followed by the short grumble of Kakuzu's. It sounded as if they were arguing about something, and it brought an amused smile to the blond's face.

Itachi entered a short while later, open Akatsuki cloak hanging loosely over his shoulders and the scroll gripped tightly in his hand. Half of his hair hung out of his ponytail; he brushed it behind his ear as he sat down, truly looking a mess. Deidara looked away before he was caught staring, instead focusing his attention on the space where Pein's projection would materialize.

And it did after roughly fifteen minutes of waiting. "The plan today is to return Sasori back to his normal form," he began, not wasting any time with formalities. "Based on what Itachi has discovered, that plan involves Sasori finding out his parents have fallen in battle. How do you two plan on telling him?"

Itachi was silent. He didn't like the way Pein was insinuating that _he_ would also be there to tell Sasori about his parents. That was strictly Deidara's job, Itachi had done his work.

Seeing that the Uchiha wasn't going to contribute to the conversation, Deidara spoke up. "I figured just telling him like it's happening in real time would be the best way. Though it doesn't seem entirely…ethical, I've written a fake note from his grandmother." He pulled it out of his cloak. "It explains that she's just received the new that his parents have fallen and won't be returning home, hm."

"I see," Pein nodded. "Though from what I've discovered from one of Sasori's subordinates, it appears that she never outright told him about their deaths. He figured it out on his own after the waiting became too long."

"So that's why he hates waiting, hm."

"You don't think telling him directly would interfere with the jutsu's reversal, do you Itachi?" Pein asked, rinnegan meeting tired onyx.

"I don't see how it could," the raven replied after some thinking. "As long as the same feelings of distraught are felt, it should work." The sentence felt wrong to say out loud, but he ignored the guilty sensation in his chest. They needed to carry out this mission and have it be done with already.

"Very well," the Akatsuki leader nodded once more. "Then we will move on to the next topic. When Sasori is returned back to his normal state of body and mind, how he'll react is uncertain. Have you given any thought as to how you will restrain him should he go volatile?"

The two members glanced at each other. They _hadn't_ thought about that. Even if Sasori didn't remember being a child, he would definitely remember Deidara slapping the back of his head and his sudden loss of chakra. That alone would warrant a severe beating, one which the blond wasn't looking forward to.

Itachi sighed, wondering if Kisame's presence would help. He was strong, he could maybe hold the puppet until he calmed down. No, Sasori had too many secret weapons hidden in his body. If he was really that aggravated, Kisame could end up poisoned. Maybe if he trapped Sasori in the Water Prison jutsu…but that'd only be a temporary fix, the redhead would likely be even more angry once released, and there would be no way to stop him.

"Nothing?" Pein asked. "No matter, we'll come back to that. If Sasori doesn't recall this past week, you are to tell him that the jutsu Deidara attempted on him merely knocked him out for that time period and that we kept him under close observation. We won't tell him anything he doesn't need to hear."

"I agree, hm." Deidara really hoped his partner remained oblivious. There was a chance he could be spared from the pain Sasori would surely inflict on him if he found out what had _really_ happened.

"However, if he does recall the past week, you are to use any means necessary to keep him from lashing out and destroying the base or killing a comrade. If that means that I have to step in, then so be it. We cannot have our cover destroyed and we cannot lose a member."

"I understand."

"Alright, hm."

"Very well. I'll station Zetsu outside the base in case Sasori tries to leave for whatever reason, and Hidan will also stand guard outside." They all knew that it was mostly because the Jashinist would only make things worse if he were to get involved _inside_. "Deidara, you will inform Sasori of his parents' deaths here in this room. Itachi, you will stand at the ready should anything go wrong. I'll have Kakuzu stand guard just outside the door as well."

Deidara grunted. He had suspected that he'd be the one to give Sasori the bad news, but he didn't think he'd have to do it with Itachi breathing down his neck. A quick look at the Uchiha revealed that he seemed to be having the same dislike for the plan. However, Pein's word was final, and in truth, it _was_ the best way to be completely prepared in case the red head went berserk.

"Are there any questions? The rainbow-colored apparition before them flickered, indicating Pein was preparing to go tell the others their newly-assigned missions.

With negative answers from both men, the projection fazed out, leaving Deidara and Itachi to ponder how they were going to handle their roles in the plans. The sculptor sighed quietly, opening the letter feigning Lady Chiyo's handwriting. "Well, might as well get this over with already, hm." He stood just as Sasori came running into the room, followed by an irked-looking Kakuzu.

"Uncle Deidara, he hit me!" The child jumped into the blond's arms, wrapping his limbs around his torso. Deidara gave Kakuzu an accusatory look.

"Oh, for the love of- I just spanked him a little!" Kakuzu growled, throwing his arms up. "It was only three swats, he was being a brat!"

"Was not!"

"Why, you little-"

"Kakuzu, please, let's just focus on the mission," Itachi cut in. "Has Leader informed you of the plan?"

"Yeah," the treasurer grumbled, giving Sasori one last narrow-eyed look before stepping back outside the door, slamming it behind him. "Hurry it up in there!"

Sasori relaxed in Deidara's arms and the blond set him down. "What were you doing to make Kakuzu so angry?"

"Nothing! I was playing on the floor like he told me to and I bumped into the desk and all his stupid coins got knocked over and he told me to pick them up and I said 'No!' and then he picked me up and spanked me for no reason…What's so funny?"

Deidara forced a serious look on his face. The thought of the Puppet Master being given such a childish punishment was laughable. However, he hoped for Kakuzu's sake that Sasori had _absolutely_ no recollection. "It's nothing, hm. But hey, listen. I have to tell you something." He felt Itachi stiffen beside him, and even Sasori picked up the sudden tenseness in the room.

There was a long pause in which Deidara tried to figure out where he should even start. How did you tell a child that his parents were dead? He'd done plenty of horrible things in his life – he'd _killed_ people – but he'd never stuck around to see the aftermath. All he cared about was his art and the single fleeting moment of chaos. After that, it didn't matter anymore, and that went for _all_ shinobi, no less anyone in the Akatsuki, for crying out loud. But now, looking into the tawny brown eyes of this child that, technically, had already had to go through this pain once, Deidara felt a slight pang of guilt and unease.

"Your grandmother wrote back…"

"What did she say?" Sasori gave a curious look to the letter Deidara gripped tightly in his hand.

"C'mere, I'll read it to you, hm." The bomber sat back down in his chair, pulling Sasori onto his lap. Itachi turned away slightly to give them their privacy. At least that's what Deidara thought. In reality, the raven just didn't want to see the expression on Sasori's face when the news was broken. " _Dear Sasori, I'm glad you're having fun with your Uncle Deidara, and he's told me what a good boy you've been,_ hm."

"She didn't really write the 'hm', did she?"

Deidara couldn't help but chuckle a little at that. "No, you little shit, now pay attention." He used his free hand to run a hand through his hair. " _I'm very proud of you. But Sasori, I'm afraid I have some terrible news. Your parents…_ " He paused, unknowingly having the same internal struggle Chiyo had had over two decades ago. He couldn't do this. There _had_ to be another way. There must be another way to reverse the jutsu. He'd look over the scroll again himself.

"My parents?" Sasori glanced up at Deidara. "What about my parents? Are they home now?" The blond froze.

"Your parents are dead, Sasori." Itachi turned toward the child, expression unreadable. Deidara's mouth dropped open slightly in shock. There was a long, deafening silence. And then Sasori jumped off Deidara's lap and ran out of the room.

And slipped right past Kakuzu, who hadn't heard any commotion and so was caught off guard by the streak of red flashing past him at hip level.

"Shit, get him!" Deidara pushed himself into a standing position, immediately running after the kid. Itachi took a deep breath and released it before following.

The three men gave chase but weren't quick enough to catch the former puppet before he slipped into the bathroom and slammed the door shut, locking it.

Deidara skidded to a halt outside of it and banged on the door. "Sasori, come out of the bathroom."

"No!"

"Come on, we need to talk! Hm."

"Just go away, you liar! My parents aren't dead!"

Itachi sighed, putting a hand on the door. "Sasori, I'm sorry we had to be the ones to tell you, but if you would just-"

"I said to go away!" he yelled, and there was the sound of something breaking from inside the bathroom.

"Open the door, Sasori!" Deidara shouted, shaking the handle like a wild animal trying to escape its cage. "Now! Hm."

"I'm not coming out! Ever!" Another loud noise of something shattering. Though it wouldn't be difficult to just bust the door down, they knew Pein (or Kakuzu, for that matter, who was standing just feet away and looking pissed) wouldn't approve of the damage to the base, even in a situation like this.

"If you don't unlock this door in three seconds, uh, you're getting another spanking," Deidara threatened, frowning awkwardly afterward. Itachi sighed.

"Sasori, please come out. We know this is hard-"

"Like you know anything about how it feels!" Sasori screamed, all the while sounding like he was completely dismantling the bathroom. Itachi growled, startling Deidara, who backed away slightly. Of course he knew how it felt! He knew more than anyone-

"Itachi," Deidara said quietly, hesitantly putting a hand on his shoulder. "Your eyes."

Itachi stiffened. He'd activated his sharingan without thinking. He closed his eyes, opening them again only after he'd calmed down enough to deactivate them.

"Sasori, I'm counting to three before I kick this door down. If that happens, you're not going to like the consequences," the Uchiha said evenly. "One."

To his and Deidara's surprise, all sounds from the bathroom came to a stop. The men shared a questioning look.

"Two...?"

There was a click, indicating that the door had been unlocked. Deidara reached his hand out and gently turned the knob, opening the door cautiously. "Sasori?" He peeked his head in, looking through the trashed bathroom and finding the child sitting curled up in the tub, shoulders shaking as he cried quietly. Immediately, the artist entered the room, giving no second thoughts before climbing into the tub with the broken child and pulling him to his chest. "Hey, now, it'll be okay."

"…Th-they're really gone?"

"Yes, I'm sorry, un." Deidara bit his lip. He glanced toward the door at the sight of Itachi stepping silently into the room, crossing the bathroom slowly before giving in and joining the two in the bathtub.

The raven couldn't bear to just stand back and watch the world come crashing down around this broken child. Not again. He gingerly placed a hand on Sasori's shoulder, rubbing it. "I know, I know." They sat huddled in the tub together for another five seconds before a sudden _poof!_ startled the two adults, and then smashed in between them was Sasori, the _real_ Sasori, the puppet.

The red head looked just as startled as the other two men in the room. One, because Itachi and Deidara were in such close proximity, and two, he was naked.

"…Sasori, my man?" Deidara averted his eyes as he backed away, out of the tub and out of Sasori's personal space. Itachi did the same. He'd never seen _that_ part (or lack thereof) of Sasori, and he didn't quite know what to think. Except that obviously the reversal had been a success. Now it was time to determine how much the red head knew.

"How are you feeling?" Itachi asked, unzipping his cloak and tossing it unceremoniously over the puppet.

"What the hell is going on?"

 **Hooray! The reversal was a success! I think one more chapter should finish this fic off, and it seems like it'll be the most fun to write.**

 **Until then, I'd like to thank all the readers/favoriters/followers/reviewers who've taken the time to read this little story that until just a few weeks ago was just trapped in my head. Your support has been my motivation to keep on keeping on writing, so thanks! :D**

 **Also, I'd like to thank InkDragons for giving me the idea to have Itachi be the one who actually tells Sasori about his parents!**


	10. There's Some Kind Of Light At The End

**Thank you to everyone who's read this fic! Sorry it's taken me so long to get this last chapter out, I've been crazy busy! Enjoy and thanks again!**

Sasori stared up at the two men in the room, many questions forming behind his eyes. Why was he in the bathroom? Why had Deidara and Itachi been so close to him. Why wasn't he wearing his own cloak?

He tried to remember the last thing he'd been doing before he'd woken up in this ridiculous situation, but nothing came to mind except that he had been in his room working on puppets. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"What's going on?" he repeated his question when no one answered him.

"You didn't show up when Pein called a meeting, so Deidara went to check on you and found you unresponsive," Itachi spoke, stoic expression on his face. "You've been that way all week, so we've kept you under close observation."

"In the bathroom?" Sasori narrowed his eyes, standing. He saw Deidara tense and turned to him. "Why do you look so guilty?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. Don't strain yourself, my man, hm." Deidara waved him off, secretly planning an escape in case the puppet suddenly remembered something.

"What's the last thing you remember before you woke up?" Itachi asked, still trying to gauge how much the red head knew.

"Nothing outstanding. I was working on my puppets in my room and now I'm here." He stepped out of the tub, suspicions rising once again. "What were you two doing to me just now?"

"Just checking you over, hm," Deidara answered, hoping he didn't sound nervous. "We were thinking something had gone awry with your body and maybe that was the reason you became unresponsive." It seemed so unbelievable, but the blond truly could not think of any other explanation, and if they waited too long to answer, it'd only make Sasori less likely to believe them anyway.

"And?" His voice held a tone of irritation to it.

"And…?"

"You must have found something, I'm responsive again, aren't I?"

Itachi shrugged impassively, turning and opening the bathroom door. "We didn't find anything that would explain it. You just suddenly came to." He glanced back at Sasori. "You don't think maybe you accidentally spilled any poison on your core?"

"No," Sasori frowned. "And even if I did, it wouldn't affect me anyway." He found himself starting to believe what the two were saying – there really was no other explanation _he_ could think of, anyway. He'd have to look into it further, though. Why would he suddenly just knock out like that? He was a _puppet_ , if his body were failing him, then something must be wrong on the insides. He'd have to take himself apart-

"Well, whatever, at least you're back, my man, hm!" Deidara hesitantly clapped him on the back. Usually, Sasori would've attempted to injure the blond for touching him. However, for some strange reason, he found the gesture…comforting.

"I'll go inform Leader that you're conscious again," Itachi said, finally leaving the bathroom and walking back toward the meeting room for privacy, nodding at Kakuzu along the way to let him know everything was fine now. Deidara stood awkwardly for a bit before chuckling nervously and stretching his arms above him.

"Yeah, I think I'll go work on my art some." The bomber turned and started walking toward his room. He bristled slightly when he noticed Sasori was following him. His heart rate suddenly increased as he had a horrible thought: What if Sasori _did_ remember everything and had only played dumb to get Deidara alone so he could kill him?

The blond casually stuck a hand into his clay pouch, his Akatsuki cloak hiding the action from his follower. If Sasori wanted to play at that game, Deidara would only play harder. They reached his bedroom door and the sculptor reached for the handle with his free hand, nonchalantly pushing the door open and stepping inside. Sasori took a few steps into the room behind him and Deidara finally turned to face him, the mouth on his palm already chewing on some clay.

"Can I help you with anything, Sasori? Hm."

The puppet narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to say something, but then stopped suddenly. Confusion slowly replaced the irritation on his face as he glanced around Deidara's room, a weird, hazy look in his eyes. His gaze finally landed back on his partner, and then without a word he turned and left the room.

Deidara scratched the back of his head, dropping the clay back into its pouch, equally confused. Shrugging it off, he lay down on his bed to get some much needed rest. What a hellish week it had been. And yet, he really didn't regret it. It had shaken things up a bit, and now he felt he understood Sasori just a little better. He smirked. Plus, he'd gotten to hear him say that art was an explosion.

The smirk dropped off his face as Sasori reappeared in his doorway. "Why does my door have a seal on it?"

"Konan put it there so no one would mess with your stuff while you were out, hm," Deidara lied. "She'll probably come by later and take it off. You'll have to go through the window until then, I guess."

His partner said nothing, brows furrowing at the inconvenience as he entered the artist's room and walked through it, opening the window and stepping a leg up. He paused. Deidara raised an eyebrow when Sasori turned to look at him.

"What's up? Hm."

"This seems…" He bit his lip in thought, eyes glancing out the window again. "Nevermind." He grabbed the window pane and brought his other leg through it, jumping out and landing on the ground. Deidara heard him slip through his own window, and not ten seconds later he was climbing back into the blond's room, a scowl on his face.

"I'm trying to sleep here, Sasori!"

" _Who_ touched my puppets?" His coil appeared from under Itachi's robe, the pointed end stabbing into the wood of Deidara's floor. The blond sat up, sighing. This was worse than dealing with kid Sasori.

"No one touched your damn puppets, my man."

"Why is Hiruko open?"

Deidara's eyes widened. _Shit_. He'd forgotten to close the container puppet. "Beats me, hm. Maybe you opened him before you went into that little coma." He stood and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He used the half inch he had over Sasori to his advantage, straightening himself to appear taller. "Look, obviously there's something going on with you. You just need to go back to your room and figure out what happened, or better yet, maybe just clear your mind, hm?"

Sasori's shoulders relaxed slightly, and his coil unstuck itself from the floor, slithering back under the robe and into its compartment on the puppet's stomach. Deidara watched Sasori's eyes as he contemplated what he'd said. There was something…off about Sasori, for sure, but the sculptor wasn't going to worry too much about it. He didn't remember a thing, there would be no near-death experience for Deidara, and the whole thing would be forgotten about in a matter of weeks.

"You there? Hm."

Sasori stared at the small pool of poison his coil had dripped onto the floor, looking completely lost in his thoughts. "It feels like I'm missing something." Deidara remained silent, afraid that if he said anything it would trigger something in Sasori's head. After a while, the puppet glanced up and sighed before walking to the window again and jumping out of it.

Sasori remained in his room for the rest of the day and most of the next day. He finally emerged late the next night still feeling strange and unable to focus on his puppets. He checked the door and saw that Konan had taken the seal off of it, so he ventured out into the living room and found Itachi relaxing on one of the couches, reading a book. He had an unexplainable curiosity as to what the Uchiha was reading, so he walked across the room and sat down right next to the raven, leaning on him slightly to view the book. He noticed that Itachi seemed tense suddenly, and like a ton of bricks it hit him as to why.

He immediately jumped up, backing away from the couch in confused horror. Itachi stared at him with a concerned look. "Excuse me," Sasori apologized before going back to his room and locking the door. What the _hell_ was wrong with him? Was he losing his mind?

He walked to Hiruko and stepped inside, sitting down and curling up before closing the container puppet. He had a problem. He hadn't thought it too odd at first, all these strange feelings – almost like he was having memories of something. Like the window in Deidara's room. He could've _sworn_ he'd climbed through it before, but he never had.

And every time he looked at Deidara, he felt this weird warmth, and he felt a strange urge to be next to the blond, though he knew he really had no desire to even be in the same room as that brat. And then just now with Itachi. What had possessed him to sit next to the other member – to _touch_ him even? It had just seemed to be a normal thing to do, as if he had done it before, but it made no sense!

He couldn't come out of his room again until he figured out what was going on. But then again, what if it made the other members think he was weak? Not that he really cared what they thought of him, but his pride could not allow anyone to doubt his strength; it was embarrassing enough having been passed out for a week. If he let something like that get to him…

Okay, he was going to forget the thing with Itachi had ever happened, and he was going think twice before acting on any thought he had. Maybe these strange feelings and memory-like thoughts would go away in time. In the meantime, he would note each odd thought he had and see if anything connected in some way. It was obvious that _something_ had had to happen in order to make him pass out, maybe these feelings he were having were little hints. He'd just have to pay close attention with his interactions from now on.

Slightly comforted, he remained curled up inside Hiruko all night, coming out when he heard signs that others were awake. He decided to sit in the living room, as he could hear someone rummaging around in the kitchen and didn't quite yet want to have any encounters. After a while, he heard Deidara's bedroom door open, and he felt a strange wave of excitement overcome him.

'Okay, that's one,' he thought, taking note of it. He heard the blond shuffle into the living room, resisting the urge to turn and look at him. Instead, he focused on the entryway to the kitchen, where Kakuzu had just emerged. A sudden feeling of dread overcame Sasori as he looked at the treasurer. He'd never felt intimidated by any of the members before, but the sight of the stitched-nin put him on edge. He gripped the couch cushion in an attempt to quiet his urge to run back to his room. He gave a brief glance at Deidara, who was watching him with a slight look of concern. He felt an urgent need to run to the blond, as if that idiot could protect him in some way. But from what? He had to _calm down_.

Kakuzu noticed the red head and spoke, "Are you doing oka-" he cut himself off abruptly as he watched Sasori jump off the couch and tackle the unprepared Deidara in a death grip.

"Whoa, shit, hm!" The two fell to the ground, banging heads together (though Deidara's the only one who felt it). "What the hell, Sasori?"

"Un-cle…!" Sasori frowned, immediately realizing that _once again_ he hadn't been able to control himself. With a shock, he also realized that he'd called Deidara his _uncle_. He quickly scrambled off his partner, standing up and looking down at him helplessly. Deidara himself seemed to be deep in thought, staring at Sasori but not looking at him.

Kakuzu coughed awkwardly behind them, and the miser's partner chose that moment to exit his room. As soon as Hidan saw Sasori, a mischievous glint appeared in his eyes. "So, you're finally-"

A swift punch to the stomach cut off whatever he was about to say, and the zealot doubled over as the wind was knocked out of him. Deidara sighed a breath of relief before glancing up at Sasori. He needed to get him out of here before that idiot Jashinist said something and ruined it all.

Unfortunately, Hidan recovered quickly and was wise to dodge the next attack Kakuzu threw at him. "What's your problem, eh, Kakuzu? I was just gonna comment about how the puppet ain't a brat anymore."

"Hidan, you damn idiot," Kakuzu muttered.

"What did you call me?" Sasori growled, coil unwinding and sliding out of the bottom of his cloak. Hidan smirked, always liking to cause trouble.

"Oh, did I make you mad?" He licked his lips as he watched Sasori's coil flick like a tail. He knew this was a fight he couldn't win – Sasori had no blood for the ritual – but it was still amusing to see the puppet actually respond. "Do you need a hug from your uncle Deidara? Or maybe a kiss-" His insults were cut off by his own groan of pain as the poisoned coil was thrust through his chest.

Sasori narrowed his eyes, watching the smirk on the zealot's face. How did he know about the Uncle thing? He hadn't been there, he'd only just shown up now. There's no way he could have heard it from his room, Sasori hadn't said it loud enough. He looked at Kakuzu – the treasurer was shaking his head, irritated. Glancing back at Deidara, he noticed the blond was staring right back at him with a concerned expression, as if waiting to see what his next move would be.

Deciding that he had played into Hidan's little game long enough, he retracted his coil, ignoring the Jashinist's small groan of pain. Or pleasure. Sasori didn't know and he didn't care. He just wanted to know what the hell was going on. He turned to Deidara, studying him. There was something fishy about how much concern was etched onto his face. Slowly, strange memories began to arise in his head:

 _He'd been working at his desk and the blond brat had kept walking in, blabbing about some nonsense about clay. About how his clay had exploded or something. He'd finally left, and Sasori had been able to work again in peace. But it hadn't lasted long, Deidara had come back in…_

Sasori squinted his eyes as he tried to remember that part. Deidara squirmed in front of him, growing nervous under the scrutinizing stare.

 _He'd asked to borrow a tool, and Sasori had turned his back to him to search for the damn thing, and then…_

"You hit the back of my head." Sasori took a step toward the blond, who instinctively backed away.

"What? Hm."

"You hit me when my back was turned and then all of my chakra was drained," Sasori growled, managing to back his soon-to-be-dead partner into a wall. "Do you want to tell me what exactly that was about?"

Deidara averted his eyes like a child caught in a lie. "Well, my man, there was this jutsu I wanted to try out…hm." If Sasori had any blood, it'd be boiling.

"What _kind_ of jutsu?" He didn't have to wait for an answer from his partner, as Hidan was more than happy to tell him right away.

"It turned you into a little bratty kid. Don't give him a hard time, though, that shit was hilarious."

"It was one of Orochimaru's jutsus, one for rejuvenation," Deidara added quickly, in the hopes that that sounded better. He shot a glare at Hidan. "I honestly didn't think it'd turn you into a kid, man, hm."

Sasori put a hand to his forehead, closing his eyes in irritation. Of _all_ the stupid things Deidara had done, this one took the cake. Not to mention how utterly _embarrassing_ if felt to be put under one of Orochimaru's jutsu. The snake-like man was probably laughing somewhere out there. "So I was a child."

"Uh, yeah, hm."

"You were so cute, going on about your parents and all."

"I'll deal with _you_ later," Sasori hissed, not even bothering to look at Hidan. "Deidara."

The blond almost whimpered. "Yeah, hm?"

"You better run."

Xxx

It had taken both Kakuzu and Itachi (who had heard the commotion and promptly came to help) to finally drag Sasori off of Deidara. Hidan hadn't bothered to help, just stood their egging the puppet on. Satisfied with his work, the red head had pulled himself out of their grasps and retreated back to his room to stew.

Deidara had been injured just enough that he was out of commission for a week, but he knew it could have been worse. And besides, they were only minor injuries, no broken bones this time. And to be honest, he knew he kind of deserved it; attempting a jutsu on his partner wasn't the smartest thing he'd ever done, but at least it was over with now. Sasori was going to be back to his old grumpy self again, even more so than usual until he got over the embarrassment of having been a child. And Deidara was sure the long scolding he'd gotten from Pein for his attack on the blond didn't help his mood much either.

Itachi had come to bring him his medicine a few times, and told him updates on how Sasori's mood had changed (it hadn't). While it was odd that the Uchiha would be the one to come and visit Deidara, what the blond found even stranger was how the raven talked about Sasori. He could almost detect a hint of fondness for the puppet in Itachi's short, clipped sentences. He decided in the end it was probably some weird paternal instinct still wired into him; Deidara admitted that he still felt some sort of way about his partner, even after his brutal attack on the blond. However, he knew it would disappear with time, as would Sasori's childish thoughts and urges.

Now his week off was up, and although he was still sore, he was getting ready for his first actual mission since he'd cast the jutsu on Sasori. He could hear his partner moving around in his room next door. He was in a foul mood – Deidara could tell by the sound of shelves slamming shut and puppets rattling on the walls.

Kisame had come back earlier that morning and had made a small comment about how he was glad Sasori was back to normal; the reply he'd gotten was an indignant shout of "Does _everyone_ know about this?!" and a door slammed in his face. So needless to say, Kisame had fueled the fire that was Sasori's short-temper.

Deidara sighed and he finished his part of getting ready. He stepped outside his room, locking it behind him, and went to stand in front of Sasori's door. He noticed it was slightly ajar, and dared to peek in. The commotion inside had stopped, and he saw his partner hunched over on the floor, reading something with a frown on his face.

With a small gasp, Deidara discovered it was the note he'd written from 'Granny Chiyo'. Where had Sasori gotten that? The last time he'd seen the thing, it was in the meeting room.

He slapped his head, cursing himself for leaving it there. That's where Pein had lectured Sasori about the importance of not attacking comrades. He must've picked it up there.

He knocked on the redhead's door. "Sasori, my man? You ready?"

Quickly the puppet folded up the note and hid it in his sleeve, turning his head to stare at Deidara through the crack in the door. "Yeah, just about." He stood and walked across the room, climbing into Hiruko. And just before he closed the container puppet, Deidara could've sworn he saw a small smile on Sasori's face.

 **Xxx**

 **I gotta stop somewhere, and leave you something to imagine.**

 **-Richard Feynman**


End file.
